Network content message placement management

ABSTRACT

A network content message placement management process is directed to the processing and management of messages in content displayed at a client computing device. A client computing device provides message placement configuration information to a network computing and storage provider. The network computing and storage transmits message placement requests to a content provider based on the message placement configuration information. The client computing device may subsequently directly or indirectly request content from the content provider. The content provided from the content provider may include one or more of the alternative messages provided in the message placement configuration information. Illustratively, the alternative messages may be included in place of other messages, such as advertisements, from third party message providers.

BACKGROUND

Generally described, computing devices and communication networks can beutilized to exchange information. In a common application, a computingdevice can request content from another computing device via thecommunication network. For example, a user at a computing device, suchas a personal computer, can utilize a software browser application,typically referred to as a browser, to request a Web page from a servercomputing device via the Internet. In such embodiments, the requestingcomputing device can be referred to as a client computing device and theserver computing device can be referred to as a content provider.Generally, the user may request, obtain, and interact with a number ofrequested Web pages or other content simultaneously, or in sequence,through the software browser application. The collection of contentaccessed by a client computing device via the software browserapplication over a period of time may be referred to as a browsesession.

Content accessed by a browsing software application, such as Web pages,typically include a number of parts, which can include text, images,videos, etc. Often the collection of parts are integrated to provide aspecific look and feel to the Web page. Because content providerstypically incur significant expenses in the presentation of content,content providers often include advertising messages as part the contentprovided to the client computing device. Such advertising messages mayeither be for the benefit of an advertiser other than the contentprovider, or may promote products or services sold by the contentprovider. For example, a shopping Web site may include on its Web pagesfor advertisements products or services sold by the shopping Web site topromote additional sales. In another example, a content provider mayutilize an third party service that provides the content providerfinancial compensation based on the number of advertisements displayedto users or in the event that a displayed advertisement results indesired interaction with users (e.g., a purchase of an advertisedproduct).

It is common for a content provider to reserve a number of areas, or“slots,” in a Web page for displaying advertising message when thecontent is displayed at the client computing device. Additionally, acontent provider or third-party advertising provider may select from anumber of eligible advertising messages to include in the display of thecontent. In many cases, third parties who wish to advertise through acontent provider may purchase placements for their advertising messagesin one or more slots of content provided by the content provider. Thepurchase of an advertising message is often based on a bidding paradigmin which the advertisement associated with a highest bidder is selected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of thisinvention will become more readily appreciated as the same become betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description, whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrative of a content delivery environmentincluding a number of client computing devices, content provider, acontent delivery network service provider, and a network computingprovider;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of a new browse sessionrequest from a client computing device to a network computing provider;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of a request for a networkresource from a network computing provider to a content provider;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of one or more requestscorresponding to one or more embedded resources from a network computingprovider to a content provider and content delivery network;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of browse session data anduser interaction data between a network computing provider and clientcomputing device;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of an additional new browsesession request from a client computing device to a network computingprovider;

FIG. 7 is a user interface diagram depicting an illustrative browserinterface and display of browse session content;

FIG. 8 is a diagram depicting illustrative browser content processingactions as a series of processing subsystems;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrative of a new browse session routineimplemented by network computing provider;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrative of a client new browse sessioninteraction routine implemented by a client computing device;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrative of a process user interactionroutine implemented by a client computing device;

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram illustrative of message slots in anetwork resource;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of message placement requestsbetween a client computing device, a network computing provider, and acontent provider;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of a requested networkresource and message information between a client computing device and acontent provider;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of message placementconfiguration information and a network resource request from a clientcomputing device to a network computing provider;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of message placement purchaserequests and network resources between a network computing provider anda content provider; and

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram illustrative of a message placement routineimplemented by a network computing provider.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally described, aspects of the present disclosure is directed tothe placement and management of alternative messages in network contentdisplayed at a client computing device in conjunction with contentproviders and a network computing provider. Specifically, aspects of thedisclosure will be described with regard to the transmission of networkresources and selected message information between the client computingdevice, a network computing provider, and a content provider based onplacement configuration information.

Although various aspects of the disclosure will be described with regardto illustrative examples and embodiments, one skilled in the art willappreciate that the disclosed embodiments and examples should not beconstrued as limiting. More specifically, while aspects of the presentdisclosure will be described with regard to the placement of alternativemessages in the context of network content, the present disclosure (orportions thereof) may be applicable in alternative environments such asthe presentation of digital audio or video content, published media, andthe like. Further, although a network computing provider is describedherein for purposes of illustration as obtaining message placementconfiguration information and providing message placement requests to acontent provider, it should be understood that any number of differententities and/or devices may perform any functionality or combination offunctionalities as described herein. Accordingly, the scope of thedisclosure should be understood as not limited to any specificcombination of actors or steps.

With reference to an illustrative example, a user may cause a clientcomputing device to instantiate a software browser application(henceforth referred to as a “browser”) for accessing content (e.g., aWeb page) provided by one or more content providers. In one embodiment,the client computing device generates message placement configurationinformation. associated with the placement of alternative messages incontent displayed in the software browser application. Illustratively,the message placement configuration information may include or referenceone or more alternative messages or references to alternative messagesfor display in accessed content. The message placement configurationinformation may further include preference information associated withthe placement of the alternative messages. For example, assume a useraccesses an interface provided by a network computing provider andselects one or more images of his family stored on the client computingdevice to use as alternative messages. The user may further enterfinancial payment information and authorize an amount of money to beutilized to ensure the alternative message placement on an ongoingperiodic basis (e.g., weekly). The user may still further enterpreference information such as purchasing goals for the alternativemessage placement.

Subsequent to receiving the message placement configuration information,the network computing provider may process the message placementconfiguration information to generate one or more message placementrequests. In one embodiment, the message placement requests maycorrespond to bidding requests associated with a bidding process for thepurchase of messages at a content provider or other message placementprovider (e.g., a third-party advertising placement provider).Illustratively, the network computing provider may generate messageplacement requests corresponding to slots and/or placements in contentmost likely to satisfy the preference information included in themessage placement configuration information. The message placementrequests may further include the alternative messages identified by theuser. Illustratively, the alternative messages may themselves beprovided in the message placement requests, or may be included asreferences or identifiers to messages stored elsewhere. For example, themessage placement requests may include references such as UniformResource Locators (“URLs”) identifying alternative messages such asimages, video clips, animations, or text stored at the network computingprovider or other network data store.

The content provider or other message placement provider may receive andprocess the message placement requests. Subsequent to the messageplacement provider receiving and processing the message placementrequests, the client computing device may request network content fromthe content provider. In one embodiment, responsive to the messageplacement requests, the content provider may provide the requestedcontent to the client computing device with one or more of thealternative messages specified by the message placement requestsincluded in respective slots in the requested content. For the purposesof a specific example, a user may request a Web page through a browserat a client computing device. The content provider may select messages,such as advertisements, to place in various message slots in the Webpage based on bids from any number of advertisers and bids provided inmessage placement requests from the network computing provider on thebehalf of the user, as described above. Illustratively, the contentprovider may select the highest bids for messages for each slot in therequested Web page. For the purposes of the example, we may assume thatthe bids provided in the message placement requests from the networkcomputing provider are the highest bids for several of the slots in therequested Web page. Accordingly, the content provider may provide theWeb page to the client computing device with the alternative messages(e.g., pictures of the user's family) in one or more slots on the Webpage. Thus the alternative messages may be included in one or more slotson the Web page in lieu of an advertisement or other third-partycontent. In various embodiments, this may allow a user to substitute oneor more selected alternative messages for in place of advertisements inthe viewed content.

In another embodiment, the network computing provider may act as aremote browse session host or other intermediary in the process ofobtaining and processing content requested by the client computingdevice. For example, in an illustrative embodiment, responsive to arequest received from the client computing device, the network computingprovider may instantiate or cause to have instantiated one or morecomputing components associated with a remote browse sessioncorresponding to requested content. The network computing provider mayanalyze the request for content and/or obtain and analyze the requestedcontent itself in determining what message placement requests togenerate based on the message placement configuration information.

For the purposes of a specific example, the network computing providermay determine that a particular network resource, such as a Web page,associated with the request for content has a certain number andconfiguration of message slots, and may further determine that thenetwork resource is provided by a first content provider who displaysadvertising obtained from a first advertising placement provider.Accordingly, the network computing provider may generate one or moremessage placement requests specific to the first advertising placementprovider based on the analysis of the Web page and message placementconfiguration information provided by the user at the client computingdevice. The network computing provider may transmit the one or moremessage placement requests to the first advertising placement providersimultaneous, prior, or subsequent to a request to the content providerfor the network resource. Based on the message placement requests sentto the first advertising placement provider, the Web page may beprovided to the network computing provider with one or more alternativemessages included in one or more message slots. The network computingprovider may accordingly provide a representation of the Web page to theclient computing device for display. In some embodiments, the networkcomputing provider may further replace one or more advertisements orother information in slots in the Web page with one or more alternativemessages before providing the representation of the Web page to theclient computing device.

With regard to embodiments illustrating the processing and maintenanceof a remote session at the network computing provider, the networkcomputing provider may instantiate any number of network computingcomponents in response to a request for a remote browse session obtainedfrom a client computing device. Using the instantiated network computingcomponents, the network computing provider may request any identifiednetwork resource(s) identified in the remote browse session request fromone or more content providers, a content delivery network, or a local orassociated cache component. For example, the browser softwareapplication on the instantiated network computing component can processa primary network resource and then generate additional content requestsfor content identified in one or more embedded resource identifiers(e.g. pictures, video files, etc.). Illustratively, in the case ofother, non-browser, applications, network resources or content mayinclude any file type or format known in the art and supported by thespecific software application. Illustratively, in some situations, oneor more devices associated with the network computing provider may belocated in a data center or other robustly networked computingenvironment, and, as compared to the client computing device, mayexperience relatively little latency or delay when obtaining networkresources.

Having obtained the requested content (e.g., the requested networkresource and embedded resources), the network computing provider mayidentify a remote session browsing configuration specifying a remotesession communication protocol for use in transmitting the requestedcontent, user interaction data, intermediate processing results, andother information between the browser being executed on the clientcomputing device and the browser being executed at the instantiatednetwork computing component on the network computing provider. Theinformation exchanged between the browser on the instantiated networkcomputing component and the browser on the client computing device canbe generally referred to as “browser session information.”

In addition to specifying a remote session communication protocol fortransmitting information between the client computing device and theinstantiated network computing component, in one embodiment, theidentified remote session browsing configuration may specify that one ormore processing actions to be performed on the requested content are tobe performed at the network computing provider rather than, or inaddition to, at the client computing device For purposes ofillustration, the processing of network content by a browser may involvevarious processing actions before content can be rendered in anappropriate form on a client computing device. A Web page, for example,may be parsed and processed to process various HTML layout informationand references to associated resources or embedded content such as CSSstyle sheets and JavaScript, as well as embedded content objects such asimages, video, audio, etc. Each object or piece of code may be parsedand processed before a representative object model corresponding to theweb page may be constructed and processed further for layout anddisplay. In accordance with the selected remote session browsingconfiguration, the client computing device and the instantiated networkcomputing component may exchange processing results via browser sessioninformation (e.g., state data or display data representing the requestedcontent).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrative of a networked computingenvironment 100 for the management and processing of content requests.As illustrated in FIG. 1, the networked computing environment 100includes a number of client computing devices 102 (generally referred toas clients) for requesting content and content processing from a contentprovider 104, CDN service provider 106, or network computing provider107. In an illustrative embodiment, the client computing devices 102 cancorresponds to a wide variety of computing devices including personalcomputing devices, laptop computing devices, hand-held computingdevices, terminal computing devices, mobile devices (e.g., mobilephones, tablet computing devices, etc.), wireless devices, variouselectronic devices and appliances and the like. In an illustrativeembodiment, the client computing devices 102 include necessary hardwareand software components for establishing communications over acommunication network 108, such as a wide area network or local areanetwork. For example, the client computing devices 102 may be equippedwith networking equipment and browser software applications thatfacilitate communications via the Internet or an intranet. The clientcomputing devices 102 may have varied local computing resources such ascentral processing units and architectures, memory, mass storage,graphics processing units, communication network availability andbandwidth, etc.

The networked computing environment 100 can also include a contentprovider 104 in communication with the one or more client computingdevices 102 or other service providers (e.g., CDN service provider 106,network computing provider 107, etc.) via the communication network 108.The content provider 104 illustrated in FIG. 1 corresponds to a logicalassociation of one or more computing devices associated with a contentprovider. Specifically, the content provider 104 can include a webserver component 110 corresponding to one or more server computingdevices for obtaining and processing requests for content (such as Webpages) from the client computing devices 102 or other service providers.The content provider 104 can further include an origin server component112 and associated storage component 114 corresponding to one or morecomputing devices for obtaining and processing requests for networkresources from the CDN service provider. The content provider 104 canstill further include an application server computing device 111, suchas a data streaming server, for processing streaming content requests.One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the contentprovider 104 can be associated with various additional computingresources, such as additional computing devices for administration ofcontent and resources, DNS name servers, and the like. For example,although not illustrated in FIG. 1, the content provider 104 can beassociated with one or more DNS name server components that would beauthoritative to resolve client computing device DNS queriescorresponding to a domain of the content provider.

In various embodiments, the content provider 104 may manage theplacement, processing, and/or purchasing of messages (e.g.,advertisements) in content provided by the content provider 104. Forexample, the content provider 104 may accept bids, subscriptions,purchasing agreements, etc. with one or more third-party advertisers forthe placement of messages in content. In other embodiments, one or moreof the functions described here may be performed by a third-partymessage placement provider (e.g., an advertisement placement providernot shown) with an agreement or other relationship to provide and/ormanage messages for the content provider. For example, in variousembodiments, the third-party message service provider may provide thecontent provider 104 with messages, tags, or references to messagesprovided by the third-party message service provider to provide incontent served by the content provider 104. In other embodiments, thecontent provider 104 may serve content with one or more softwareinstructions or tags instructing a browser or content provider 104 toretrieve messages selected by the third-party message service provider.Accordingly, any function or combination of functionality describedherein as performed by a content provider 104 may in various otherembodiments be performed by a third-party entity or service such as athird-party message placement provider or CDN service provider 106.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the networked computing environment100 can further include a CDN service provider 106 in communication withthe one or more client computing devices 102 and other service providersvia the communication network 108. The CDN service provider 106illustrated in FIG. 1 corresponds to a logical association of one ormore computing devices associated with a CDN service provider.Specifically, the CDN service provider 106 can include a number of Pointof Presence (“POP”) locations 116, 122, 128 that correspond to nodes onthe communication network 108. Each CDN POP 116, 122, 128 includes a DNScomponent 118, 124, 130 made up of a number of DNS server computingdevices for resolving DNS queries from the client computers 102. EachCDN POP 116, 122, 128 also includes a resource cache component 120, 126,132 made up of a number of cache server computing devices for storingresources from content providers and transmitting various requestedresources to various client computers. The DNS components 118, 124, and130 and the resource cache components 120, 126, 132 may further includeadditional software and/or hardware components that facilitatecommunications including, but not limited to, load balancing or loadsharing software/hardware components.

In an illustrative embodiment, the DNS component 118, 124, 130 andresource cache component 120, 126, 132 are considered to be logicallygrouped, regardless of whether the components, or portions of thecomponents, are physically separate. Additionally, although the CDN POPs116, 122, 128 are illustrated in FIG. 1 as logically associated with theCDN service provider 106, the CDN POPs will be geographicallydistributed throughout the communication network 108 in a manner to bestserve various demographics of client computing devices 102.Additionally, one skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that theCDN service provider 106 can be associated with various additionalcomputing resources, such as additional computing devices foradministration of content and resources, and the like.

With further continued reference to FIG. 1, the networked computingenvironment 100 can also include a network computing provider 107 incommunication with the one or more client computing devices 102, the CDNservice provider 106, and the content provider 104 via the communicationnetwork 108. The network computing provider 107 illustrated in FIG. 1also corresponds to a logical association of one or more computingdevices associated with a network computing provider. Specifically, thenetwork computing provider 107 can include a number of Point of Presence(“POP”) locations 134, 142, 148 that correspond to nodes on thecommunication network 108. Each POP 134, 142, 148 includes a networkcomputing component (NCC) 136, 144, 150 for hosting applications, suchas data streaming applications, via a number of instances of a virtualmachine, generally referred to as an instance of an NCC. One skilled inthe relevant art will appreciate that NCC 136, 144, 150 would includephysical computing device resources and software to provide the multipleinstances of a virtual machine or to dynamically cause the creation ofinstances of a virtual machine. Such creation can be based on a specificrequest, such as from a client computing device, or the NCC can initiatedynamic creation of an instance of a virtual machine on its own. EachNCC POP 134, 142, 148 also includes a storage component 140, 146, 152made up of a number of storage devices for storing any type of data usedin the delivery and processing of network or computing resources,including but not limited to user data, state information, processingrequirements, historical usage data, and resources from contentproviders that will be processed by an instance of an NCC 136, 144, 150and transmitted to various client computers, etc. The NCCs 136, 144, 150and the storage components 140, 146, 152 may further include additionalsoftware and/or hardware components that facilitate communicationsincluding, but not limited to, load balancing or load sharingsoftware/hardware components for selecting instances of a virtualmachine supporting a requested application and/or providing informationto a DNS nameserver to facilitate request routing.

In an illustrative embodiment, NCCs 136, 144, 150 and the storagecomponents 140, 146, 152 are considered to be logically grouped,regardless of whether the components, or portions of the components, arephysically separate. For example, a network computing provider 107 maymaintain separate POPs for providing the NCC and the storage components.Additionally, although the NCC POPs 134, 142, 148 are illustrated inFIG. 1 as logically associated with a network computing provider 107,the NCC POPs will be geographically distributed throughout thecommunication network 108 in a manner to best serve various demographicsof client computing devices 102. Additionally, one skilled in therelevant art will appreciate that the network computing provider 107 canbe associated with various additional computing resources, suchadditional computing devices for administration of content andresources, and the like. Even further, one skilled in the relevant artwill appreciate that the components of the network computing provider107 and components of the CDN service provider 106 can be managed by thesame or different entities.

In various embodiments, the network computing provider 107 may managethe placement, processing, and/or purchasing of messages (e.g.,advertisements) in content provided by the content provider 104. Forexample, the network computing provider 107 may obtain message placementconfiguration information from a client computing device 102, and maygenerate message placement requests for a content provider 104 or othermessage placement provider. In one embodiment, one or more of thefunctions described here may be performed by a message managementcomponent at the client computing device 102 or associated with anyother third-party. In other embodiments, one or more of the functionsdescribed here may be performed by a third-party message placementprovider (e.g., an advertisement placement provider) with an agreementor other relationship to provide and/or manage messages for the contentprovider. Accordingly, any function or combination of functionalitydescribed herein as performed by a network computing provider 107 may invarious other embodiments be performed by a third-party entity orservice such as a client computing device 102, a third-party messageplacement provider, a content provider 104, or CDN service provider 106,among others.

With regard to FIGS. 2-11, illustrative interactions, user interfaces,and routines will be described for the generation, processing, andmaintenance of a remote browsing session at a network computingprovider. Illustrative further discussion of message selection,processing, and maintenance will be described in greater detail withreference to FIGS. 12-17 below.

With reference now to FIGS. 2-6, the interaction between variouscomponents of the networked computing environment 100 of FIG. 1 will beillustrated. Specifically, FIGS. 2-6 illustrate the interaction betweenvarious components of the networked computing environment 100 for theexchange of content between a client computing device 102 and a contentprovider 104 via the network computing provider 107. For purposes of theexample, however, the illustration has been simplified such that many ofthe components utilized to facilitate communications are not shown. Oneskilled in the relevant art will appreciate that such components can beutilized and that additional interactions would accordingly occurwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

With reference to FIG. 2, the process can begin with the generation andprocessing of a browse session request from a client computing device102 to a network computing provider 107 will be described.Illustratively, the client computing device 102 may load a browser forviewing network content in response to an event or user request.Subsequent to the browser being loaded, the browser may be implementedto request a new browse session. From the perspective of the user of theclient computing device, the request for the new browse sessioncorresponds to the intended request to transmit the request to one ormore corresponding content providers 104. Illustratively, this requestmay be generated automatically as a result of the browser loading (e.g.,a request for a default or “home” page), or may be generated as a resultof a user following a link or entering a network address into an addressbar. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the browse session request is transmittedfirst to a network computing provider 107. In an illustrativeembodiment, the network computing provider 107 utilizes a registrationapplication program interface (“API”) to accept browse session requestsfrom the client computing device 102. The browse session request caninclude network address information corresponding to a requested networkresource, which may be in any form, including, but not limited to, anInternet Protocol (“IP”) address, a URL, a Media Access Control (“MAC”)address, etc.

Subsequent to the receipt of the browse session request, the networkcomputing provider 107 may select an associated network computingcomponent (hereinafter “NCC”) point of presence (hereinafter “POP”) suchas NCC POP 142 to service the browse session request. The selection ofthe NCC POP may determine the processing and network resources availableto the instantiated virtual machine. The selection of processing andnetwork resources and the provisioning of software at the NCC POPinstance may be done, at least in part, in order to optimizecommunication with content providers 104 and client computing devices102.

With reference to FIG. 3, an illustrative interaction for generation andprocessing of a request for a network resource from a network computingprovider 107 to a content provider 104 will be described. As illustratedin FIG. 3, the selected NCC POP 142 may generate a browse sessioncorresponding to one or more content providers based on a browse sessionrequest, such as the illustrative browse session request depicted inFIG. 2 above. Illustratively, instantiating a new browse sessioninstance may include loading a new virtual machine instance and/orbrowser instance at the NCC POP 142, reserving or allocating devicememory, storage or cache space, processor time, network bandwidth, orother computational or network resources for the new browse session.

Subsequent to initializing a new browse session instance, NCC POP 142may provide a request for a network resource to a content provider 104based on a network address included in the browse session request. Forexample, a browse session request may include a URL for a Web page, suchas “http://www.xyzsite.com/default.htm.” NCC POP 142 may resolve the URLto an IP address through a DNS resolver associated with the networkcomputing provider (not shown), and may request the Web page from thecontent provider 104 at the resolved IP address. In various embodiments,a network resource may be retrieved from any combination of contentproviders, content delivery network (hereinafter “CDN”) servers, orcaches associated with the network computing provider 107. For example,the network computing provider may check if a resource is stored in alocal cache or in another server or service provider associated with thenetwork computing provider 107. If a network resource is stored in alocal or associated location, the NCC POP 142 may retrieve the networkresource from the local or associated location rather than from thethird-party content provider 104 or CDN service provider 106.Illustratively, the NCC POP 142 may provide requests for any number ofnetwork resources as included in the browse session request, and mayobtain these network resources from any number of different sources,sequentially or in parallel.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the content provider 104 receives the resourcerequest from the NCC POP 142 and processes the request accordingly. Inone embodiment, the content provider 104 processes the resource requestas if it were originally provided by the client computing device 102.For example, the content provider 104 may select the type of content,ordering of content, or version of content according to the requirementsof the requesting client computing device 102. In another embodiment,the content provider 104 may be provided with information that providesinformation associated with the NCC POP 142 for utilization in providingthe requested content (e.g., an available amount of processing resourcesor network bandwidth).

Subsequent to obtaining the requested network resource from the contentprovider 104 (or other source designated by the content provider), theNCC POP 142 may process the network resource to extract embeddedresource identifiers and gather information for determination of aremote session browsing configuration. For example, a network resourcesuch as a Web page may include embedded CSS style information andJavaScript as well as embedded resource identifiers to additionalresources such as text, images, video, audio, animation, executablecode, and other HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. In the process ofextracting the embedded resource identifiers, the NCC POP 142 may gatherinformation about the processed network resources for later use in thedetermination of a remote session browsing configuration as discussedbelow with reference to FIG. 4.

With reference to FIG. 4, an illustrative interaction for generation andprocessing of one or more requests corresponding to one or more embeddedresources from a network computing provider to a content provider andcontent delivery network is disclosed. As illustrated in FIG. 4, theselected NCC POP 142 may provide resource requests to one or moresources of content such as content provider 104 and CDN POP 116. Theresource requests may correspond to embedded resources based on one ormore embedded resource identifiers extracted from a requested networkresource (e.g., a Web page) as described in FIG. 3 above. In variousembodiments, embedded resources may be retrieved from any combination ofcontent providers, CDN servers, or caches associated with the networkcomputing provider 107. For example, the network computing provider maycheck if an embedded resource is stored in a local cache or in anotherserver or service provider associated with the network computingprovider 107. If an embedded resource is stored in a local or associatedlocation, the NCC POP 142 may retrieve the embedded resource from thelocal or associated location rather than the third-party contentprovider or CDN. Illustratively, the NCC POP 142 may provide requestsfor any number of embedded resources referenced by a network resource,and may obtain these embedded resources from any number of differentsources, sequentially or in parallel. Subsequent to obtaining therequested resources, the NCC POP 142 may process the resources andrequested content to determine a remote session browsing configurationfor the processing and communication of content to the client computingdevice 102.

With reference to FIG. 5, an illustrative interaction for generation andprocessing of processing results and user interaction data between anetwork computing provider and client computing device is disclosed. Aspreviously described, in one embodiment, the respective browsers on theinstantiated network computing component and the client computing device102 can exchange browsers' session information related to the allocationand processing of the requested resources at the instantiated networkcomputing component and client computing device. As illustrated in FIG.5, the selected NCC POP 142 may provide an initial processing result tothe client computing device 102 over the network 108. The initialprocessing result may correspond to requested network content, such as aWeb page, along with associated embedded resources processed by the NCCPOP 142 in accordance with a selected remote session browsingconfiguration as described in FIG. 4 above. The NCC POP 142 also makes adetermination of which additional processes will be conducted at the NCCPOP 142, at the client computing device 102, or both. Subsequent toreceiving an initial processing result and the allocation of processes,the client computing device 102 may perform any remaining processingactions on the initial processing result as required by the selectedremote session browsing configuration, and may display the fullyprocessed content in a content display area of a browser. The clientcomputing device 102 may process any local user interactions with localinterface components or content elements locally, and may provide userinteractions requiring remote processing to the network computingprovider 107. The network computing provider 107 may provide updatedprocessing results to the client computing device in response to changesto the content or remote user interaction data from the client computingdevice.

With reference to FIG. 6, a block diagram of the content deliveryenvironment of FIG. 1 illustrating the generation and processing of anadditional new browse session request from a client computing device toa network computing provider is disclosed. As illustrated in FIG. 6, asecond new browse session request may be sent to network computingprovider 107 from client computing device 102 across network 108. In anillustrative embodiment, the network computing provider 107 utilizes aregistration API to accept browse session requests from the clientcomputing device 102.

The additional browse session request may be generated by a clientcomputing device 102 in response to a user opening up a new browserwindow with a new content display area, opening a new content displayarea in an existing browser window (e.g., opening a new tab in abrowser), requesting new network content in an existing content displayarea (e.g., following a link to a new network resource, or entering anew network address into the browser), or any other user interaction.For example, a user browsing a first Web page corresponding to a firstbrowse session instance may follow a link that opens a new tab orbrowser window to view a second Web page. In one embodiment, anyrequired steps of obtaining and processing content associated with thesecond Web page may be performed by the currently instantiated networkcomputing component in which the browser can handle the processing ofboth resource requests. In another embodiment, the client computingdevice 102 request may be processed as a new browse session request tothe network computing provider 107, including the network address of thesecond Web page. In this embodiment, the browser on the client computingdevice may not specifically request a separate browse session, and auser's interaction with the browser on the client computing device 102may appear to be part of a same browsing session. As described abovewith regard to FIGS. 2 and 3, the network computing provider 107 maycause an instantiation of a network computing component for obtainingand processing content associated with the second web page. In otherembodiments, a new browse session request may be generated by the clientcomputing device 102 corresponding to sections of a network resource(e.g., frames of a Web page), individual network resources, or embeddedresources themselves, data objects included in a set of content, orindividual network resources.

Illustratively, the additional browse session request may include anynumber of pieces of data or information including, but not limited to,information associated with a user, information associated with theclient computing device 102 (e.g., hardware or software information, adevice physical or logical location, etc.), information associated withthe network 108, user or browser preferences (e.g., a requested remotesession browse protocol, a preference list, a decision tree, or otherinformation), information associated with the network computing provider107, information associated with one or more pieces of requested networkcontent (e.g., the network address of a network resource), etc.Requested content may include any manner of digital content, includingWeb pages or other documents, text, images, video, audio, executablescripts or code, or any other type of digital resource.

Subsequent to the receipt of the browse session request, the networkcomputing provider 107 may select an associated network computingcomponent such as NCC POP 142 to service the browse session request. Asdiscussed above with reference to FIG. 2, a network computing provider107 may select an NCC POP to service a browse session request based onany number of factors, including, but not limited to available NCC POPresources (e.g., available memory, processor load, network load, etc), afinancial cost of servicing the browse session request at the NCC POP,the NCC POP location respective to a client computing device 102,content provider 112, or CDN POP 116, a NCC POP cache status (e.g.,whether a requested resource is already stored in an NCC POP cache),etc. In one embodiment, the network computing provider 107 may select anumber of NCC POPs to service a browse session request. Illustratively,although the network computing provider 107 is depicted here forpurposes of illustration as selecting NCC POP 142, the network computingprovider 107 may select any extant NCC POP to service the browse sessionrequest. For example, a single client computing device 102 maysimultaneously or sequentially provide three different browse sessionrequests to the network computing provider 107 corresponding todifferent network resources. The network computing provider 107 mayselect different NCC POPs for each browse session request, the same NCCPOP for all three browse session requests, or any combination thereof.As discussed above, the decision whether to select a different NCC POPthan was utilized for a previous or simultaneous browse session requestmay be made on the basis of available system resources, randomly, oraccording to any other factor as discussed above and with regards toFIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is a user interface diagram depicting an illustrative browserinterface and display of browse session content. As described above withreference to FIG. 5, a browser 700 may have a content display area 702,as well as one or more one or more local interface components. Theselocal interface components may include toolbars, menus, buttons, addressbars, scroll bars, window resize controls, or any other user interfacecontrols. Illustratively, local interface components may be displayed asseparate from the content display area or may be overlaid or embedded inthe content display area.

Interactions with local interface components may be treated as localuser interactions or remote user interactions depending on theprocessing required by the interaction and the remote session browsingconfiguration. For example, the selection of a preferences option in abrowser menu may be handled entirely as a local user interaction by abrowser. The processing required to display the menu, provide visualfeedback regarding the selection, display the preferences window, andprocess the changes made to the browser preferences may be performedlocally. As discussed above, processing user interactions locally mayprovide greater responsiveness at the browser as opposed to sending userinteraction data to the NCC POP 142 for processing. As another example,when using a remote session browsing configuration that specifiesextensive processing on the NCC POP 142 (e.g., a remote session browsingconfiguration using a remote session communication protocol such asRDP), the selection of a content refresh button in a browser toolbar maybe handled both as a local user interaction and a remote userinteraction. The limited processing required to provide interfacefeedback corresponding to the button selection may be handled at theclient computing device 102 in order to provide the appearance ofinterface responsiveness, while the refresh command, which may requireprocessing of the network content displayed in the content display areaof the browser, may be sent as user interaction data to the NCC POP 142for processing. The NCC POP 142 may then transmit updated processingresults corresponding to the refreshed network content back to theclient computing device 102 for display.

FIG. 8 is a diagram depicting illustrative browser content processingactions as a series of processing subsystems 800. In many embodiments, abrowser may process sets of content (e.g., network resources such as webpages and associated embedded resources) in a series of processingactions. Illustratively, and as described above with reference to FIGS.3-5, a remote session browsing configuration may specify a split betweenprocessing actions performed at a network computing provider (e.g., anNCC POP) and processing actions performed at a client computing device102. This split may designate some processing actions to be performed byeach of the NCC POP and client computing device 102, or may assign allprocessing actions to a single device or component. For example, an NCCPOP may perform all of these various processing actions at the browsesession instance, and send fully processed RDP processing results to theclient computing device 102 for bitmap assembly and display. Any numberof different remote session browsing configurations may be used by oneor more browse sessions instances running at an NCC POP.

One of skill in the relevant art will appreciate that the subsystemsshown here are depicted for the purpose of illustration, and are notintended to describe a necessary order or a definitive list of browsersubsystems. Various browser software components may implement additionalor fewer browser subsystems than are shown here, and may order thesubsystems or corresponding processing actions in any number ofdifferent ways. Although the processing subsystems 800 depicted here forpurposes of illustration are directed at the processing of Web pages orother Web content, one of skill in the relevant art will appreciate thatthe processing of other file types or network resources may be broken upin a similar manner. For example, one of skill in the relevant art willappreciate that a similar schema may be developed for the processing ofimages, video, audio, database information, 3d design data, or any otherfile format or type of data known in the art. Similar schema may also bedeveloped for any number of device operating system or softwareframework processing operations, such as scheduling, memory or filemanagement, system resource management, process or service execution ormanagement, etc. Further, although the HTML protocol and RDP remotesession communication protocols are discussed herein for the purposes ofexample, one of skill in the relevant art will appreciate that a remotesession browsing configuration may implement any number of remotecommunication protocols for any number of specified processing actions,and that a remote session browsing configuration may be formulated toperform any fraction or combination of the actions identified below atany combination of the client computing device 102 and network computingprovider 107.

Illustratively, the first processing subsystem involved in theprocessing and display of network content is the networking subsystem802. Illustratively, the networking subsystem 802 may be responsible forall communication between the browser and content provider, includinglocal caching of Web content. The networking subsystem is generallylimited by the performance of the user's network. A remote sessionbrowsing configuration that splits processing actions at the networkingsubsystem 802 might include a remote session browsing configurationutilizing an HTML remote session communication protocol, where one ormore caching or resource retrieval actions were performed at the NCCPOP, but parsing and processing of the content was performed at theclient computing device.

As network resources such as HTML documents are downloaded from theserver they may be passed to an HTML subsystem 804 which parses thedocument, initiates additional downloads in the networking subsystem,and creates a structural representation of the document. Modern browsersmay also contain related subsystems which are used for XHTML, XML andSVG documents. A remote session browsing configuration that splitsprocessing actions at the HTML subsystem 804 might include a remotesession browsing configuration utilizing an HTML remote sessioncommunication protocol, where an initial HTML page is processed at theNCC POP in order to extract embedded resource identifiers, butadditional parsing and processing of the content is performed at theclient computing device. In another embodiment, a remote sessionbrowsing configuration that splits processing actions at the HTMLsubsystem 804 might perform initial processing to create the structuralrepresentation of the HTML document, and provides a processing resultincluding the structural representation and associated embeddedresources to the client computing device for processing.

When CSS is encountered, whether inside an HTML document or an embeddedCSS document, it may be passed to a CSS subsystem 806 to parse the styleinformation and create a structural representation that can bereferenced later. Illustratively, a remote session browsingconfiguration that splits processing actions at a CSS subsystem 806 mayconstruct a processing result including the CSS structuralrepresentation and HTML structural representation, and provide theprocessing result and associated embedded resources to the clientcomputing device for processing.

HTML documents often contain metadata, for example the informationdescribed in a document header or the attributes applied to an element.The collections subsystem 808 may be responsible for storing andaccessing this metadata. A remote session browsing configuration thatsplits processing actions at a collections subsystem 808 may construct aprocessing result including processed metadata along with any otherstructural representations discussed above, and provide the processingresult and associated embedded resources to the client computing devicefor processing.

When JavaScript is encountered, it may be passed directly to aJavaScript subsystem 810 responsible for executing the script. TheJavaScript subsystem 810 has been examined fully over the years, and maybe one of the most well known browser subsystems in the art. A remotesession browsing configuration that splits processing actions at aJavaScript subsystem 810 may construct a processing result including aninternal representation of one or more JavaScript scripts, including,but not limited to state data or a representation of the script in anative or intermediate form, as well as any other processed structuresor data discussed above, and provide the processing result andassociated embedded resources to the client computing device forprocessing.

Because many JavaScript engines are not directly integrated into thebrowser, there may be a communication layer including the marshallingsubsystem 812 between the browser and the script engine. Passinginformation through this communication layer may generally be referredto as marshaling. A remote session browsing configuration that splitsprocessing actions at a marshalling subsystem 812 may construct aprocessing result including marshalling data as well as any otherprocessed structures, scripts, or data discussed above, and provide theprocessing result and associated embedded resources to the clientcomputing device for processing.

In some embodiments, JavaScript interacts with an underlying networkresource such as a Web document through the Document Object Model APIs.These APIs may be provided through a native object model subsystem 814that knows how to access and manipulate the document and is the primaryinteraction point between the script engine and the browser.Illustratively, a remote session browsing configuration that splitsprocessing actions at a native object model subsystem 814 may constructa processing result including native object model state data or APIcalls as well as any other processed structures, scripts, or datadiscussed above, and provide the processing result and any otherassociated embedded resources to the client computing device forprocessing.

Once the document is constructed, the browser may needs to apply styleinformation before it can be displayed to the user. The formattingsubsystem 816 takes the HTML document and applies styles.Illustratively, a remote session browsing configuration that splitsprocessing actions at a formatting subsystem 816 may construct aprocessing result including an HTML representation with applied styles,as well as any other processed state data, API calls, structures,scripts, or data discussed above, and provide the processing result andany other associated embedded resources to the client computing devicefor processing.

In one embodiment, CSS is a block based layout system. After thedocument is styled, the next step, at a block building subsystem 818,may be to construct rectangular blocks that will be displayed to theuser. This process may determine things like the size of the blocks andmay be tightly integrated with the next stage, layout. A remote sessionbrowsing configuration that splits processing actions at a blockbuilding subsystem 818 may construct a processing result including blockinformation, as well as any other processed state data, API calls,structures, scripts, or data discussed above, and provide the processingresult and any other associated embedded resources to the clientcomputing device for processing.

Subsequent to the browser styling the content and constructing theblocks, it may go through the process of laying out the content. Thelayout subsystem 820 is responsible for this algorithmically complexprocess. Illustratively, a remote session browsing configuration thatsplits processing actions at a layout subsystem 820 may process thevarious state data, API calls, structures, scripts, or data discussedabove to construct a processing result including layout information forthe client computing device. Illustratively, an NCC POP may make use ofvarious data or settings associated with the client computing device orbrowser (e.g., as provided in the initial browse session request) inorder to generate a suitable layout for the client computing device. Forexample, a mobile device may provide a screen resolution and a displaymode to the NCC POP. The NCC POP may base layout calculations on thisscreen resolution and display mode in order to generate a processingresult corresponding to a content representation suitable for a browserrunning on the mobile device. Illustratively, in various embodiments,any other subsystem implemented by the NCC POP may make use of dataassociated with the client computing device or browser in generating aprocessing result for the client.

The final stage of the process may occur inside the display subsystem822 where the final content is displayed to the user. This process isoften referred to as drawing. A remote session browsing configurationthat splits processing actions at the networking subsystem 802 mightinclude a remote session browsing configuration utilizing an RDP remotesession communication protocol, where nearly all processing is performedat the NCC POP, and a processing result including bitmap data and lowlevel interface data are passed to the client computing device fordisplay.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrative of a new browse session routine900 implemented by network computing provider 107 of FIG. 1. New browsesession routine 900 begins at block 902. At block 904, the networkcomputing provider 107 receives a new browse session request from clientcomputing device 102. As previously described, the client computingdevice 102 may load a browser for viewing network content in response toan event or user request. Subsequent to the browser being loaded, thebrowser may be implemented request a new browse session. From theperspective of the user of the client computing device, the request forthe new browse session corresponds to the intended request to transmitthe request to one or more corresponding content providers 104.Illustratively, this request may be generated automatically as a resultof the browser loading (e.g., a request for a default or “home” page),or may be generated as a result of a user following a link or entering anetwork address into an address bar. This browse session request mayinclude one or more addresses or references to various network resourcesor other content requested by the client computing device 102. In anillustrative embodiment, the browse session request is transmitted inaccordance with an API.

At block 906 the network computing provider 107 may select an associatedNCC POP to instantiate a new browse session based on the browse sessionrequest. As discussed above with reference to FIG. 1, a networkcomputing provider 107 may include any number of NCC POPs distributedacross any number of physical or logical locations. A network computingprovider 107 may select a NCC POP to service a browse session requestbased on any number of factors, including, but not limited to availableNCC POP resources (e.g., available memory, processor load, network load,etc.), a financial cost of servicing the browse session request at theNCC POP, the NCC POP location respective to a client computing device102, content provider 104, or CDN POP 116, a NCC POP cache status (e.g.,whether a requested resource is already stored in an NCC POP cache),etc.

In one embodiment, the network computing provider 107 may select anumber of NCC POPs to service a browse session request. For example, thenetwork computing provider 107 may select two NCC POPs with differentlogical locations in the network. Each NCC POP may independently requestand process network content on the behalf of the client computing device102, and the client computing device 102 may accept data from the firstNCC POP to return a processing result. Subsequent to being selected bythe network computing provider 107, NCC POP 142 may obtain the browsesession request. In one embodiment, NCC POP 142 may have the browsesession request forwarded to it by a component of network computingprovider 107. In another embodiment, NCC POP 142 or client computingdevice 102 may receive connection information allowing the establishmentof direct communication between NCC POP 142 and client computing device102. Illustratively, NCC POP 142 may be provided with the browse sessionrequest originally provided to network computing provider 107, may beprovided with a subset of information (e.g., just a network address ofrequested content), or may be provided additional information notincluded in the original browse session request.

Subsequent to the NCC POP 142 being selected, the network computingprovider 107 may cause the NCC POP 142 to instantiate a new browsesession. Illustratively, instantiating a new browse session instance mayinclude loading a new virtual machine instance and/or browser instanceat the NCC POP 142, reserving or allocating device memory, storage orcache space, processor time, network bandwidth, or other computationalor network resources for the new browse session. Illustratively, one ormore characteristics of the new browse session instance and/or browserinstance may be based on client computing device 102 informationincluded in the browse session request. For example, the browse sessionrequest may include a device type or browser type, a device screenresolution, a browser display area, or other information defining thedisplay preferences or capabilities of the client computing device 102or browser. The NCC POP 142 may accordingly instantiate a virtualmachine instance and/or a browser instance with the same or similarcapabilities as the client computing device 102. Illustratively,maintaining a virtual machine instance and/or browser with the same orsimilar capabilities as the client computing device 102 may allow theNCC POP 142 to process network content according to the appropriatedimensions and layout for display on the particular client computingdevice 102.

In some embodiments, the NCC POP 142 may utilize an existing virtualmachine instance and/or browser instance in addition to, or as analternative to, instating a new browse session. For example, subsequentto the NCC POP 142 being selected, the network computing provider 107may cause the NCC POP 142 to associate an existing browser instanceand/or virtual machine instance, such as one or more instancespreviously instantiated at the NCC POP 142, with the new browse sessionrequest. Illustratively, an existing browser session and/or virtualmachine instance may correspond to another browse session, remoteapplication session, or other remote process associated with the user orclient computing device 102, or may be a previously instantiatedsoftware instance from an unrelated browse session or remote process. Inother embodiments, the NCC POP 142 may instantiate a new browser orother application process in an existing virtual machine instance, ormay combine the utilization of previously instantiated and newlyinstantiated software processes in any number of other ways. In stillfurther embodiments, the network computing provider or NCC POP 142 mayinstantiate any number of new virtual machine instances and/or browserinstances (or make use of existing instantiated instances) based on asingle browse session request.

At block 908 the network computing provider 107 may provide a requestfor one or more network resources to a content provider or CDN serviceprovider based on a network address included in the browse sessionrequest. In various embodiments, one or more network resources may beadditionally or alternatively retrieved from a cache local to the NCCPOP 142 or otherwise associated with the network computing provider 107.One of skill in the art will appreciate that, in the case of otherembodiments, the link or network address may correspond to a document orfile stored in a digital file locker or other network storage locationor at a cache component associated with the network computing provider107 or client computing device 102. In some embodiments, the new sessionrequest may include a document or file in addition to or as analternative to a network address. At block 910, the network computingprovider 107 obtains the one or more network resources. Subsequent toobtaining the requested network resource, the NCC POP 142 may processthe network resource to extract embedded resource identifiers.

At block 912, the network computing provider 107 may provide resourcerequests to one or more sources of content such as content providers,CDN service providers, and caches. The resource requests may correspondto embedded resources based on the one or more embedded resourceidentifiers extracted from the one or more network resource as describedin block 910 above. At block 914, the network computing provider 107 mayobtain these embedded resources from any number of different sources,sequentially or in parallel.

At block 916, the network computing provider 107 may process the one ormore network resources and associated embedded resources to determine aremote session browsing configuration for the processing andcommunication of content to the client computing device 102. A remotesession browsing configuration may include any proprietary or publicremote protocol allowing exchange of data and user interactions orrequests between a client and a remote server. The remote sessionbrowsing configuration may illustratively include both a remote sessioncommunication protocol and a processing schema for providing processed(or unprocessed) content to a client computing device for display in thecontent display area of a browser.

Illustratively, a remote session browsing configuration may define orspecify a remote session communication protocol, including, but notlimited to, a network protocol, signaling model, transport mechanism, orencapsulation format for the exchange of state data, user interactions,and other data and content between the network computing provider andthe client computing device. Examples of remote session communicationprotocols known in the art include Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP),X-Windows protocol, Virtual Network Computing (VNC) protocol, RemoteFrame Buffer protocol, HTML, etc. For example, RDP illustrativelyspecifies a number of processing mechanisms for encoding client input(e.g., mouse movement, keyboard input, etc.) into protocol data unitsfor provision to a remote computing device, and corresponding mechanismsfor sending bitmap updates and low level interface information back tothe client device. As another example, the HTML protocol illustrativelyprovides a mechanism for providing files defining interface informationand containing resources references from a server to a client, and acorresponding mechanism for a client computing device to providerequests for additional files and resources to the server. In oneembodiment, the NCC POP 142 may provide an initial communication to theclient computing device 102 after determining the remote sessioncommunication protocol. This initial communication may allow the clientcomputing device 102 to prepare to receive communications in theselected remote session communication protocol, and, in the case of pullremote session communication protocols like HTTP, may cause the clientcomputing device to send an initial resource request to the browsesession instance running on the NCC POP 142.

Each remote session browsing configuration may additionally define asplit of processing actions between the network computing and storageservice (e.g., NCC POP 142) and the client computing device (e.g.,client computing device 102). In one embodiment, a particular split ofprocessing actions may be based on or mandated by a particular remotesession communication protocol. In another embodiment, a remote sessioncommunication protocol may allow several different splits of processingactions depending on the implementation or configuration of theprotocol. For the purpose of illustration, many pieces of networkcontent (e.g., Web pages, video, Flash documents) may require variousprocessing actions before being displayed on a computing device. A Webpage, for example, may be parsed to process various HTML layoutinformation and references to associated resources or embedded contentsuch as CSS style sheets and JavaScript, as well as embedded contentobjects such as images, video, audio, etc. The HTML and each referencedobject or piece of code will typically be parsed and processed before arepresentative object model corresponding to the Web page may beconstructed. This object model may then be processed further for layoutand display in a content display area of a browser at the clientcomputing device 102. Illustrative browser processing actions aredescribed in greater detail below with reference to FIG. 8. One of skillin the art will appreciate that, in the case of other embodiments orapplications, various other processing actions may be required.

A remote session browsing configuration may specify that various of theprocessing actions required for display of piece of network content beperformed at the remote computing device, such as the NCC POP 142,rather than at the client computing device 102. Network contentpartially (or wholly) processed at the network computing provider may bereferred to as a processing result. As discussed below, the split ofprocessing actions may be associated with or linked to the remotesession communication protocol used for exchanging data and client inputbetween the NCC POP 142 and client computing device 102.

For example, a remote session communication protocol such as RDP thattransmits a processing result including low level interface informationand bitmaps to the client computing device 142 for display may beassociated with a remote session browsing configuration that specifiesperforming all, or nearly all, of the necessary content processingactions at the NCC POP 142. While using RDP, the NCC POP 142 may, forexample, run a full instance of a browser the NCC POP 142 and transmit aprocessing result consisting of bitmap updates corresponding to arepresentation of the displayed content to the client computing device102. The client computing device 102, in this example, may merely berequired to assemble the transmitted bitmap updates for display in thecontent display area of the browser, and may perform none of theprocessing of the actual HTML, JavaScript, or data objects involved inthe display of an illustrative piece of network content. As anotherexample, a remote session browsing configuration utilizing a remotesession communication protocol such as HTML may transmit network contentin a largely unprocessed form. The client computing device 102 may thusperform all of the processing actions required for display of networkcontent while the NCC POP 142 performs little or no processing.

The NCC POP 142 may base its determination of a remote session browsingconfiguration on any number of factors, including, but not limited to,one or more characteristics of one or more of the requested resources,content provider 104, or CDN service provider 106, one or morecharacteristics of the content address or domain, one or morecharacteristics of the client computing device 102, browser orapplication, user, one or more characteristics of the NCC POP 142, orone or more characteristics of the network or network connection, etc.Characteristics of requested resources may include, but are not limitedto, a data format, a content type, a size, processing requirements,resource latency requirements, a number or type of interactive elements,a security risk, an associated user preference, a network address, anetwork domain, an associated content provider, etc. Characteristics ofa content provider 104, CDN service provider 106, computing device 102,or NCC POP 142 may include, but are not limited to, processing power,memory, storage, network connectivity (e.g., available bandwidth orlatency), a physical or logical location, predicted stability or risk offailure, a software or hardware profile, available resources (e.g.,available memory or processing, or the number of concurrently opensoftware applications), etc. The NCC POP 142 may further considerperceived security threats or risks associated with a piece of contentor domain, preferences of a client computing device or a contentprovider, computing or network resource costs (e.g., a financial cost ofprocessing or bandwidth, resource usage, etc.), predeterminedpreferences or selection information, any additional processing overheadrequired by a particular remote session browsing configuration, a cachestatus (e.g., whether a particular resources is cached at a NCC POP 142,at the client computing device 102, or at other network storageassociated with the network computing provider), a predicted delay ortime required to retrieve requested network content, a preferred contentprovider or agreements with a content provider for a particular remotesession browsing configuration or level of service, a remote sessionbrowsing configuration being used for another (or the current) browsesession by the same user, or any other factor.

In some embodiments, an NCC POP 142 may base a determination of a remotesession browsing configuration on past behavior or practice. Forexample, an NCC POP 142 that has determined a remote browse sessionconfiguration for a particular resource in the past may automaticallyselect the same remote browse session configuration when the resource isrequested by the same (or potentially a different) user. As anotherexample, a user that has a history of frequently accessing Web siteswith extensive processing requirements may automatically be assigned aremote session browsing configuration that performs the majority ofprocessing at the NCC POP 142. In other embodiments, an NCC POP 142 maybase a determination of a remote browse session configuration onpredictions of future behavior. For example, an NCC POP 142 may base itsdetermination of a remote browse session configuration for a particularresource on an analysis of past determinations made for a particular Website, network domain, or set of related resources. A content providerthat historically has provided video-heavy Web pages may be associatedwith a remote session browsing configuration that emphasizes videoperformance at the client computing device 102. Illustratively, pasthistorical analysis and future predictions may be considered as one ormore of a number of factors on which to base the remote session browsingconfiguration determination process, or may be definitive in thedecision making process. For example, once an NCC POP 142 determines aremote session browsing configuration for a particular content provider,it may skip the remote session browsing configuration determinationprocess for any future resources served from the content provider.Illustratively, the NCC POP 142 may re-determine a remote sessionbrowsing configuration to be associated with the content provider aftera fixed period of time or after the NCC POP 142 has identified ordetermined a change in the content being served by the content provider.

In other embodiments, a network resource, Web site, network domain,content provider, or other network entity may specify or otherwiserequest the use of a particular remote browse session configuration in aresource tag, metadata, or other communication with an NCC POP 142. TheNCC POP 142 may treat the request as definitive, or may consider therequest as one of multiple factors to be considered in the decisionmaking process.

For example, a remote session browsing configuration utilizing a remotesession communication protocol such as RDP may specify extensiveprocessing to occur at the network computing provider 107 (e.g., at NCCPOP 142) rather than at the client computing device 102. The remotesession browsing configuration may thus leverage the processing power ofthe NCC POP 142 to achieve lower latencies and presentation delay whendealing with network content that requires a great deal ofpre-processing (e.g., content with a great deal of CSS or JavaScriptinformation defining page layout). The NCC POP 142 may therefore selecta remote session browsing configuration that performs a substantialamount of processing at the network computing provider 107 and utilizesRDP or a similar remote session communication protocol for communicationof processing-intensive content. Conversely, a remote session browsingconfiguration that utilizes a remote session communication protocol suchas HTML may specify extensive processing at the client computing device102 rather than at the network computing provider 107. The remotesession communication protocol may thus achieve smaller delays andsmoother presentation when presented with simple network content thatrequires very little processing or network content that requires rapidchange in displayed content after its initial load. For example, a Webpage with embedded video may perform better performing the majority ofprocessing locally and utilizing HTML rather than RDP as a remotesession communication protocol. A remote session browsing configurationspecifying extensive processing at the network computing provider 107must process the video at the NCC POP 142 and rapidly send screenupdates (e.g. by RDP) to the client computing device 102, potentiallyrequiring a great deal of bandwidth and causing choppy playback in thebrowser, while a remote session browsing configuration specifying localprocessing may provide raw video information directly to the clientcomputing device 102 for display (e.g. by HTML), allowing for clientside caching and a smoother playback of content.

As a further example, the NCC POP 142 in communication with a clientcomputing device 102 with extremely limited processing power may electto use a remote session browsing configuration that requires very littleprocessing by the client computing device, for example, using RDP totransmit NCC POP 142 processed results. Conversely, an NCC POP 142providing an extremely interactive Web page may elect to use a remotesession browsing configuration that allows the client computing device102 to handle user interactions locally in order to preserve interfaceresponsiveness, for example, using HTML to transmit substantiallyunprocessed data. As a still further example, a NCC POP 142 may base thedetermination of a remote session browse configuration on preferencesprovided by the client computing device 102. A client computing device102 may illustratively include preferences for a remote session browseconfiguration in an initial browse session request, or at any othertime. The NCC POP 142 may utilize these preferences as an alternativeto, or in addition to any other factor or decision metric.Illustratively, allowing the client computing device 102 to set orinfluence the selection of a remote session browse configuration allowsthe NCC POP 142 to take user preferences in account when determining aremote session browse configuration. For example, a user worried aboutinitial page load times may prefer to use a remote session browsingconfiguration heavy on remote processing and utilizing an RDP remotesession communications protocol, while a user wishing to maintain anextremely responsive interface may prefer using a remote sessionbrowsing configuration that performs the majority of the processing onthe client computing device 102, for example, using an HTML remotesession communication protocol.

Illustratively, the NCC POP 142 may base a determination of a remotebrowsing configuration on any factor or combination of factors. Forexample, the NCC POP 142 may select a remote session browsingconfiguration based on a single factor, or may assign weights to one ormore factors in making a determination. In some embodiments, thedetermination process of the NCC POP 142 may change based on one or morefactors described above. For example, an NCC POP 142 communicating witha client computing device 102 over a network with a surplus of unusedbandwidth may give a low weight to factors such as the networkrequirements of a remote browse session, and may give a higher weight tofactors such as the latency of page interactions, while an NCC POP 142communicating with a client computing device 102 over a limitedbandwidth network may give a higher weight to factors dealing with theefficiency of the remote session browse protocol over a network.

In one embodiment, the NCC POP 142 may select a single remote sessionbrowsing configuration for a set of network content. For example, theNCC POP 142 may select a single remote session browsing configurationfor a requested network resource such as a Web page. The NCC POP 142 maythus process the Web page together with all embedded content based onthe selected remote browsing session protocol, and utilize the remotebrowsing session protocol to exchange user interaction data and updatedbrowse session data for all embedded content associated with the Webpage. In another embodiment, the NCC POP 142 may select different remotesession browsing configurations for one or more resources in a set ofnetwork content. For example, a network resource such as a Web page mayreference processing intensive embedded JavaScript or CSS resources, aswell as embedded video resources. The NCC POP 142 may select a firstremote session browsing configuration for the Web page and all embeddedresources excluding the embedded video resource, and a second remotesession browsing configuration for the embedded video resource.Illustratively, this may result in the NCC POP 142 utilizing RDP to senda processing result to the client computing device 102 for display ofthe Web page and associated embedded resources, while utilizing HTTP tosend the embedded video as a separate, unprocessed file. In oneembodiment, the client computing device 102 may perform the minimalprocessing required to display the RDP processing result correspondingto the Web page and embedded resources, and may also perform additionalprocessing necessary to display the embedded video, for example,overlaying the video on top of the displayed RDP representation of theWeb page. Any number of remote session browsing configurations may beselected to correspond to any number of resources or objects included ina set of network content, regardless of whether resources or objects areobtained from a content provider 104 or CDN service provider 106 in oneor more logical files or data structures.

Although the selection of a remote session browsing configuration isillustratively depicted herein as occurring after all network resourcesand associated embedded content have been obtained by the NCC POP 142,one skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the selection of aremote session browsing configuration may be performed at any time. Forexample, the NCC POP 142 may select a remote session browsingconfiguration after receiving a new browse session request or relatedinformation from the client computing device, may select a remotesession browsing configuration after obtaining a network resource, butbefore obtaining any associated embedded resources, or at any othertime. In some embodiments, the NCC POP 142 may switch to a new remotesession browsing configuration at some time subsequent to the clientcomputing device 102 obtaining an initial processing result.Illustratively, the NCC POP 142 selecting a new remote session browsingconfiguration may occur automatically after a certain time period orevent or in response to a change in network conditions, NCC POP 142 orclient computing device 102 load or computing resources, or any otherfactor described above as potentially influencing the choice of remotesession browsing configuration. Illustratively, an NCC POP 142 dealingwith other types or formats of information may select a remote sessionprotocol based on any number of similar factors. For example, one ofskill in the relevant art will appreciate that a similar schema may bedeveloped for the processing of images, video, audio, databaseinformation, 3d design data, or any other file format or type of dataknown in the art.

The client computing device 102 may, in various embodiments, furtherinstantiate a parallel browsing process sequentially or simultaneouslywith the request for a remote browse session. In one embodiment, aclient computing device 102 may instantiate a traditional local browsesession as known in the art (e.g., providing content requests from thebrowser and processing obtained resources locally) in addition to one ormore remote browse instance executing at an NCC POP 142. In anotherembodiment, a client computing device 102 may be provided withunprocessed network resources by the NCC POP 142. Illustratively, thenetwork resources may have been retrieved from one or more contentproviders, CDNs, or cache components by the NCC POP 142. The resourcesmay be provided to the client computing device 102 to process locally inparallel with the remote browse instance executing at the NCC POP 142.In still further embodiments, the network computing provider or NCC POP142 may instantiate any number of new virtual machine instances and/orbrowser instances (or make use of existing instantiated instances) toprocess resources and/or send processing results to the client computingdevice 102 in parallel. Illustratively, the local browse session at theclient computing device 102 and the remote browse session instance atthe NCC POP 142 may execute in parallel.

In one embodiment, a local browse session executing at the clientcomputing device 102 may obtain unprocessed content (e.g., html Webpages, embedded content, and other network resources) from the NCC POP142 responsive to a browse session request. Illustratively, the contentmay have been retrieved by the NCC POP 142 from a content provider, CDN,or cache in response to the browse session request. The unprocessedcontent provided by the NCC POP 142 may include all the contentassociated with the browse session request or may supplement contentexisting in a cache of the client computing device, retrieved from acontent provider or CDN, or obtained from some other source. In oneembodiment, a client computing device 102 may obtain all requestedcontent from a local cache, and may not obtain any unprocessed resourcesor content from the NCC POP 142. Subsequent to obtaining the unprocessedcontent, client computing device 102 may process the requested contentin parallel with a remote browse session executing at the NCC POP 142.For example, as the local browse session executing at the clientcomputing device 102 is processing the requested content, a remotebrowse session executing at the NCC POP 142 may be processing the samecontent at substantially the same time. Once the NCC POP 142 hasperformed a set of processing actions on the content to generate aprocessing result (e.g., as specified by a determined remote sessionbrowsing configuration), the NCC POP 142 may provide the processingresult to the client computing device 102.

For the purpose of illustration, a client computing device 102 mayrequire a longer load time to obtain and process requested networkresources than a browse session instance running at the NCC POP 142. Forexample, the NCC POP 142 may obtain and process content quickly due toits position on the network and the relative processing power of thelocal client computing device as compared to the NCC POP 142. Even ifthe NCC POP 142 provides the client computing device 102 with allrequested network content, the client computing device 102 may stillobtain a processing result from NCC POP 142 before the local browsesession has fully completed processing the requested resources. Theclient computing device 102 may complete any further processing stepsand display the obtained processing result before completing localprocessing and display of the content. Illustratively, this may allowthe client computing device 102 to take advantage of an NCC POP 142'squicker content load time relative to a traditional local browsesession. Prior to the local browse session completing the processing allrequested resources, the browser may process any user interactionslocally and/or remotely as described in FIGS. 5 and 11 below.

Once the local browse session has fully obtained and processed resourcescorresponding to the requested content, the computing device 102 maydetermine whether to continue to display results obtained from the NCCPOP 142 (and process user interactions at the NCC POP 142) using thedetermined remote session browsing configuration or switch to processinguser interactions locally. Switching to process user interactionslocally may include replacing a displayed representation of therequested resources based on a processing result obtained from the NCCPOP 142 with a local display of the requested resources. For example, abrowser may display a representation of a Web page corresponding to aprocessing result from the NCC POP 142 (e.g., RDP display informationrepresenting the rendered page) until the browser is finished processingand rendering the Web page locally. The browser may then replace therepresentation from the NCC POP 142 with the locally renderedrepresentation of the Web page. Illustratively, replacing onerepresentation with another representation may be transparent to theuser. For example, the local and NCC POP 142 representations of the Webpage may be identical or substantially identical. In one embodiment,when the NCC POP 142 representation of the web page is displayed, thebrowser may send various user interactions with the displayed page tothe NCC POP 142 for processing. When the locally rendered version of theWeb page is displayed, user interactions may be processed locally at thebrowser. Illustratively, the determination of which representation ofthe requested resources to display (e.g., local or from the NCC POP 142)may be based on any of the same factors described with reference todetermining a remote session browse protocol in above.

In one embodiment, the client computing device 102 may switch toprocessing user interactions locally as soon as local resources arefully loaded. Illustratively, the remote browse session instance runningat the NCC POP 142 may be terminated after switching to localprocessing, or the remote browse session instance may be maintained as abackup in case of unresponsiveness or a failure with regards to thelocal browse session. For example, the client computing device 102 mayprocess user interactions locally, as well as sending remote userinteraction data to the NCC POP 142 in accordance with the selectedremote session browsing configuration. The remote user interaction datamay be used by the NCC POP 142 to keep the remote browse sessioninstance fully in parallel with the local browse process being executedby the browser at the client computing device 102. As long as the localbrowse session continues to handle user interactions, the NCC POP 142may either refrain from sending updated processing results, or may sendupdated processing results ignored by the client computing device 102.If a problem develops with the local browse session at the clientcomputing device 102, updated processing results may be provided to theclient computing device 102 from the NCC POP 142 for processing anddisplay in lieu of the local browse session. Illustratively, this switchfrom the local browse session to remote processing may be transparent tothe user. In some embodiments, the client computing device 102 mayswitch from a local browse session to a remote browse session instancebased on factors other than unresponsiveness or failure at the localbrowser. For example, the client computing device 102 or networkcomputing and storage component 107 may select between a remote andlocal browse session based on any of the factors enumerated with regardsto determining a remote session browse protocol above

In another embodiment, the client computing device 102 may continue toprocess and display updated processing results from the NCC POP 142 evenafter the local browse session has fully loaded the requested content.The client computing device 102 may terminate the local browse sessionor may run the local browse session in parallel as a backup process inthe converse of the example provided above. It should be appreciatedthat although the local browse session is described here for the purposeof illustration as being slower to load than the remote browse sessioninstance, in some embodiments the local browse session may load thecontent faster than the remote browsing session, in which case thebrowser may process user interactions locally until the remote browseprocess has fully loaded the requested content. In some embodiments, theclient computing device 102 may display and process user interactionsthrough whichever browse session, local or remote, loads the requestedcontent first.

In various other embodiments, the network computing provider 107 mayinstantiate multiple remote browse session instances to run in parallelin addition to or as an alternative to instantiating a local browsesession. Illustratively, these parallel browse session instances mayutilize any of the same or different remote session browse protocols,and may act as backups in the manner described above with regard to alocal browse session, or may be used and switched between asalternatives in order to maximize browser performance at the clientcomputing device 102. For example, in response to one or more browsesession requests, the network computing provider 107 may instantiate abrowse session instance running on a first NCC POP and utilizing an RDPprotocol as well as browse session instance running on a second NCC POPutilizing an X-Windows protocol. The client computing device 102 or thenetwork computing provider 107 may determine which browse sessioninstance and protocol should be used based on performance or resourceusage considerations as described with regards to determining a remotesession browse protocol above.

With continued reference to FIG. 9, at block 918, the network computingprovider 107 may process the obtained content, including the one or morerequested network resources and embedded network resources, according tothe determined remote session browsing configuration to generate aninitial processing result. At block 920, the network computing provider107 may provide the initial processing result to the client for furtherprocessing and display in the content display area of the browser. Forthe purposes of further example, an illustrative client new browsesession interaction routine 1000 implemented by client computing device102 is described below with reference to FIG. 10. At block 922, thestart new browse session routine 900 ends.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrative of a client new browse sessioninteraction routine 1000 implemented by client computing device 102. Newbrowse session interaction routine 1000 begins at block 1002 in responseto an event or user request causing the client computing device 102 toload a browser for viewing network content. At block 1004, the clientcomputing device loads locally managed components of the browser,including all local interface components. As described above withreference to FIGS. 5 and 7, local interface components may includetoolbars, menus, buttons, or other user interface controls managed andcontrolled by the software browser application or any other processexecuting or implemented locally at the client computing device. Atblock 1006, the client computing device 102 provides a request for a newbrowse session instance to the network computing provider 107. From theperspective of the user of the client computing device, the request forthe new browse session corresponds to the intended request to transmitthe request to one or more corresponding content providers 104. In otherembodiment, the new session request may correspond to a request to loada file or other document (e.g., a request to load an image in aphoto-editing application, etc.). Illustratively, the request may begenerated automatically as a result of the browser loading (e.g., arequest for a default or “home” page), or may be generated as a resultof a user following a link or entering a network address into an addressbar. As illustrated with respect to FIG. 2, the browse session requestis transmitted first to a network computing provider 107. In anillustrative embodiment, the network computing provider 107 utilizes aregistration API to accept browse session requests from the clientcomputing device 102.

A browse session request may include any number of pieces of data orinformation including, but not limited to, information associated with auser, information associated with the client computing device 102 orsoftware on the client computing device (e.g., hardware or softwareinformation, a device physical or logical location, etc.), informationassociated with the network 108, user or browser preferences (e.g., arequested remote session browse protocol, a preference list, a decisiontree, or other information), information associated with the networkcomputing provider 107, information associated with one or more piecesof requested network content (e.g., the network address of a networkresource), etc. For example, a browse session request from the clientcomputing device 102 may include information identifying a particularclient computing device hardware specification or a hardware performancelevel, latency and bandwidth data associated with recent contentrequests, a desired security level for processing different types ofcontent, a predetermined preference list of remote session browseprotocols, and one or more network addresses corresponding to requestednetwork resources, among others. In another example, the browse sessionrequest can include information identifying a client computing device102 screen resolution, aspect ratio, or browser display area in thebrowse session request may allow the network computing provider 107 tocustomize the processing of network content for display on the clientcomputing device. As previously described, the browse session requestcan include network address information corresponding to a requestednetwork resource, which may be in any form including, but not limitedto, an Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, a URL, a Media Access Control(“MAC”) address, etc. In one embodiment, the request for a new browsesession instance may correspond to the network computing providerreceiving a request for a new browse session instance at block 904 ofFIG. 9 above.

At block 1008, the client computing device 102 obtains an initialprocessing result from the network computing provider 107.Illustratively, the format and data included in the initial processingresult may vary based on the remote session browsing configurationselected by the network computing provider 107. In one embodiment, theinitial processing result may include or be preceded by data informingthe client computing device 102 of the choice of remote session browsingconfiguration and/or establishing a connection over the remote sessioncommunication protocol corresponding to the selected remote sessionbrowsing configuration. As discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8 and9, the obtained initial processing result may include requested contentwith one or more processing actions performed by the network computingprovider 107. Subsequent to obtaining the initial processing result, theclient computing device 102 may perform any remaining processing actionson the initial processing result at block 1010.

At block 1012, the client computing device 102 displays the contentcorresponding to the processed initial processing result. For example,the client computing device 102 may display the processed client in thecontent display area 702 of a browser 700 as described in FIG. 7 above.In one embodiment, the processing result may only include display datacorresponding to content displayed by a browser, and may not includedisplay data corresponding to, for example, the interface controls of abrowser instance at the NCC POP 142, the desktop of a virtual machineinstance corresponding to the browse session, or any other userinterface of the NCC POP 142. For example, the NCC POP 142 may process aWeb page and associated content for display via RDP in a browserinstance running in a virtual machine instance at the NCC POP 142. Thebrowser instance may have one or more interface elements such astoolbars, menus, scroll bars, etc., in addition to the displayed Webpage. The NCC POP 142 may send an RDP processing result corresponding tothe displayed Web page only, without any of the interface elementsassociated with the browser. Illustratively, including an RDP processingresult corresponding to the displayed Web page only may allow thebrowser at the client computing instance 102 to display the Web page byassembling the RDP processing result in the content display area of thebrowser without any further processing. In another embodiment, the RDPprocessing result may include a full virtual machine desktop and browserwindow corresponding to the full interface displayed at the NCC POP 142browse session instance. The client computing device may automaticallyidentify the area of the RDP processing result corresponding to therequested content, and may display only this area in the content displayarea of the browser.

At block 1014, the client computing device 102 processes local andremote user interactions. An illustrative routine for processing userinteractions is provided below with reference to FIG. 11. At block 1016the routine ends. Illustratively, a browse session instance instantiatedby the network computing content provider 107 may terminate when abrowser window or content display area is closed, may terminate when aremote session browse protocol is replaced by a parallel process at theclient computing device 102, or may terminate in accordance with a timeror other event. Illustratively, if a browse session has terminatedautomatically due to a time-out but has associated content stilldisplayed in a browser at the client computing device 102, laterattempts by the user to interact with the content may result in a newbrowse session request being provided to the network computing andstorage service provider 107 to start a new browse session according tothe last state of the terminated session. Illustratively, terminating aremote browse session after a time-out may allow the network computingstorage provider 107 to save computing resources at the NCC POP. In oneembodiment, this process may be transparent to the user at clientcomputing device 102, even though the remote browse session has beenterminated during the intervening period.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrative of a process user interactionroutine 1100 implemented by a client computing device 102. Process userinteraction routine 1100 begins at block 1102 in response to aninteraction by a user. Illustratively, process user interaction routine1100 may begin subsequent to the display of content in a content displayarea of a browser interface. For example, process user interactionroutine 1100 may correspond to block 1014 of FIG. 10 above.

Illustratively, the displayed content may have one or more interactiveelements, such as forms, buttons, animations, etc. User interaction withthese interactive elements may require processing and display of updatedcontent in the content display area. For example, selecting an elementin a drop-down menu on a Web page may require processing and may changethe configuration or visual appearance of the Web page or embeddedresources. Illustratively, the processing required by user interactionwith the displayed content may be handled as a local user interaction atthe client computing device 102 or as a remote user interaction at theNCC POP 142 depending on the remote session browsing configuration inuse. For example, if a remote session browsing configuration utilizingsubstantial local processing (e.g., sending unprocessed files overHTML), user interactions with displayed content may typically be handledas local user interactions at the client computing device 102.Illustratively, handling user interactions with displayed content aslocal user interactions at the client computing device 102 may allow forbetter responsiveness and fewer delays with simple user interactions(e.g., selection of a radio button, or typing text into a field), asinteraction data corresponding to the interaction does not need to besent to the NCC POP 142 for processing.

As a further example, if a remote session browsing configurationutilizing heavy remote processing of content (e.g., sending processedbitmap data over RDP) is being used as the remote session browsingconfiguration, all user interactions with displayed content may behandled as remote user interactions. For example, user input (e.g.,keyboard inputs and cursor positions) may be encapsulated in RDPprotocol data units and transmitted across network 108 to the NCC POP142 for processing. Illustratively, the NCC POP 142 may apply the userinteractions to the network content and transmit processing resultsconsisting of updated bitmaps and interface data corresponding to anupdated representation of the content back to the client computingdevice 102. Illustratively, handling user interactions with displayedcontent as remote user interactions at the NCC POP 142 may have anegative impact on interface responsiveness, as data is required to passover the network and is limited by network latency; however, userinteractions that require a substantial amount of processing may performbetter when handled as remote user interactions, as the processinglatency of the NCC POP 142 may be substantially lower than theprocessing latency of the client computing device 102.

In addition to a content display area for displaying network content, abrowser may have one or more local interface components, such astoolbars, menus, buttons, or other user interface controls. Interactionswith local interface components may be treated as local userinteractions or remote user interactions depending on the processingrequired by the interaction and the remote session browsingconfiguration as further depicted in illustrative FIG. 7. For example,some local interface components may be managed locally by browser coderunning on the client computing device, while other local interfacecomponents may have one or more locally managed aspects (e.g., buttonclick feedback, scroll bar redraw, etc), and one or more remote managedaspects treated as remote user interactions (e.g., page refresh,requesting a page at an address in an address bar, etc.)

At block 1104, the client computing device 102 obtains a userinteraction from the user. This user interaction may be an interactionwith local interface components as described in FIG. 7 and above, or maybe an interaction with any interactive elements of the content displayedin the content display area of the browser, such as form fields,buttons, animations, etc. User interaction with these local interfacecomponents or interactive elements of displayed content may requirelocal and/or remote processing depending on the nature of the componentor element and the processing split specified by the remote sessionbrowsing configuration as described in FIG. 7 and above. At block 1106,the client computing device 102 determines the interaction processingrequirements for the obtained user interaction. At decision block 1108,if the user interaction has local aspects (e.g., button click feedback,a change to a local browser state, a content element being processed atthe client computing device, etc.) the routine 1102 moves to block 1110to process the local aspect or aspects of the user interaction at theclient computing device 102 and subsequently update the local interfacecomponents at block 1112. Illustratively, and as discussed above,aspects of the interaction and updating interface components andelements locally allows a browser to provide responsive user interfacesand content. Subsequent to processing local aspect(s) of the userinteraction, or if the user interaction has no local elements (e.g., auser interaction with a content element displayed in the content displayarea when using a remote session browsing configuration processingentirely on the server side and utilizing an RDP remote sessioncommunication protocol) the routine 1102 moves to decision block 1114.If the user interaction has remote aspects that require processing, theroutine 1102 moves to block 1116 and provides remote user interactiondata to the network computing provider 107. Illustratively, in the caseof a heavily server side remote session browsing configuration utilizingan RDP remote session communication protocol, the remote userinteraction data may include input data, such as a cursor position orkeyboard input, encapsulated in one or more RDP protocol data units. Insome embodiments of remote session browsing configurations utilizing RDPor other remote session communication protocols, particular aspects ofremote user interaction data, such as cursor positions, may be providedto the network computing provider 107 on a continuous basis. In otherembodiments of remote session browse configurations, remote userinteraction data may only be provided to the network computing provider107 when associated with a user interaction that requires remoteprocessing.

At block 1118, the client computing device 102 obtains an updatedprocessing result from the network computing provider 107, the networkcomputing provider 107 having processed the remote user interaction datato generate an updated representation of the content. At block 1120, theclient computing device 102 performs any additional processing requiredon the updated processing result (based on the remote session browsingconfiguration), and at block 1122 displays the updated processing resultin the content display area of the browser. At block 1124 the processuser interaction routine 1102 ends. Illustratively, the routine may beexecuted again any number of times in response to further userinteractions with the browser and displayed content.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram illustrative of message slots in anetwork resource 1200. The network resource 1200 contains certaincontent that is native to all instances of the page, such as nativecontent 1202 describing a softball item that is available for purchase.The page further contains two slots 1204 and 1206, each of which cancontain a message selected by a content provider 104 or other messageplacement provider. Three sample messages 1208-1212 are shown that arecandidate messages for slot 1204. In some embodiments, content provider104 or other message placement provider identifies these candidatemessages from a larger pool of messages based on one or more preliminaryeligibility tests, which may be based on such factors as a current timeor date, a user identity or behavior, characteristics or preferencesassociated with the client computing device 102 or browser, a type ortopic of content, or any other factor. Slot 1206 may be associated witha different set of candidate message, depending on any number of same ordifferent tests.

An instance of the network resource 1200 may be served or otherwisedirectly or indirectly provided to the user at client computing device102. The content provider 104 or other message placement provider mayselect a message from the candidate messages 1208-1212 based on one ormore placement factors including, but not limited to: a maximum amountbid by an advertiser or other party to display a candidate message; alottery; a selection based on a determined effectiveness or value of aparticular message to the content provider 104, other message placementprovider, network computing provider 107, or any other entity; asubscription agreement with an advertiser or other party; a purchase ofa particular slot or placement; and/or any other factor related to theclient computing device, network computing provider 107, contentprovider 104, or other message placement provider.

In some embodiments, a message associated with a third-party advertisermay be associated with a variable or contingent value or bid. Forexample, an advertiser may agree to pay the publisher when a message isselected or when an action is performed by the user at the clientcomputing device. For example, an advertiser may offer $2.00 if thedisplay of the message leads to the provision of a mailing address by auser, and $1.00 if the display of the message leads to the provision ofan electronic mailing address by a user. In various embodiments thecontent provider 104 or other message placement provider may weighvarious bids or values associated with each message in any number ofways, as known in the art.

In alternative embodiments, the content provider 1204 may determine thatall, or substantially all, of the message placement slots, such asmessage placement slots 1204 or 1206, may be populated with blank or nomessages. For example, the content provider 1204 may determine that auser may qualify for alternative messages that do not include anycontent for rendering by the client computing devices 102. In suchembodiments, the content provider 104 may cause the layout or order ofthe network resource 1200 to be modified to incorporate additional oralternative content or to otherwise reflow the previously displayedcontent.

With reference now to FIGS. 13 and 14, the interaction between variouscomponents of the networked computing environment 100 of FIG. 1 will beillustrated. Specifically, FIGS. 13 and 14 illustrate embodiments ofinteractions between various components of the networked computingenvironment 100 for the exchange of message placement configurationinformation and message placement requests between a client computingdevice 102 and a content provider 104 via the network computing provider107, and further for the exchange of content between the clientcomputing device 102 and the content provider 104. For purposes of theexample, however, the illustration has been simplified such that many ofthe components utilized to facilitate communications are not shown. Oneskilled in the relevant art will appreciate that such components can beutilized and that additional interactions would accordingly occurwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of message placement requestsbetween a client computing device 102, a network computing provider 107,and a content provider 102. FIG. 13 may begin with a client computingdevice 102 providing message placement configuration information to anetwork computing provider 107 over network 108. Illustratively, themessage placement configuration information may identify one or morealternative messages and/or include placement preference information asdescribed in further detail below with reference to FIG. 17. The messageplacement configuration information may be defined or provided by a userat client computing device 102, associated with a browser or clientcomputing device 102, or dynamically determined based on any number offactors. In one embodiment, message placement configuration informationmay be provided to the network computing provider 107 by means of anetwork interface or an API provided by the network computing provider107.

Illustratively, the network computing provider 107 may determine one ormore message placement requests based on the message placementconfiguration information obtained from the client computing device 102.In one embodiment, the message placement requests may be associated withbids or requests to purchase placements in content provided by thecontent provider 104 for one or more of the alternative messagesreferenced in the message placement configuration information.Subsequent to determining the message placement requests, the networkcomputing provider 107 may transmit the message placement requests tothe content provider for processing. The message placement requests maybe provided to the content provider 104 in any format accepted by thecontent provider 104, and may be transmitted via any medium orcommunications protocol known in the art. Subsequent to obtaining themessage placement requests, the content provider may process the messageplacement requests, for example determining future placement of the oneor more alternative messages in various served network resources orother content. In one embodiment, this may include comparing bids orpurchase offers in the provided message placement requests against otherbids by advertisers or other parties interested in placing messageswithin served content.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of a requested networkresource and message information between a client computing device 102and a content provider 104. In one embodiment, FIG. 14 may beginsubsequent to the interactions described with regard to FIG. 13 above.As described with regard to FIG. 13, the content provider 104 may haveprocessed the message placement requests, for example, determining afuture placement of the one or more alternative messages in servednetwork resources or other content. The client computing device 102 mayprovide a request for a network resource to the content provider 104.For example, the browser at the client computing device may request aWeb page or other network content as is known in the art. The contentprovider 104 may receive the network resource request and selectmessages for inclusion in the network resource. Illustratively, thecontent provider may have predetermined messages for inclusion in thenetwork resource based on the message placement requests, or maydetermine messages for inclusion in the network resource responsive tothe network resource request from the client computing device 102. Inone embodiment, selecting messages for the network resource includesdetermining one or more messages for each slot in the requested networkresource. Illustratively, some selected messages may be alternativemessages based on the message placement requests discussed above withregards to FIG. 13.

Subsequent to selecting messages for the network resource, the contentprovider 104 may provide the network resource to the client computingdevice 102 including information regarding one or more selected message.Illustratively, the selected message information may include messagesthemselves, or may include identifier, references, or other codeassociated with the selected messages. The client computing device 102may display the network resource in a browser, including the selectedmessages based on the selected message information. Illustratively, oneor more of the selected messages displayed in slots in the networkresource may be alternative messages based on the message placementrequests.

With reference now to FIGS. 15 and 16, the interaction between variouscomponents of the networked computing environment 100 of FIG. 1 will beillustrated. Specifically, FIGS. 15 and 16 illustrate embodiments ofinteractions between various components of the networked computingenvironment 100 for the exchange of message placement configurationinformation, message placement requests, and network resources between aclient computing device 102 and a content provider 104 via the networkcomputing provider 107. For purposes of the example, however, theillustration has been simplified such that many of the componentsutilized to facilitate communications are not shown. One skilled in therelevant art will appreciate that such components can be utilized, andthat additional interactions would accordingly occur without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of message placementconfiguration information and a network resource request from a clientcomputing device 102 to an NCC POP 142 of a network computing provider107. FIG. 15 begins with the client computing device 102 providingmessage placement configuration information to an NCC POP 142 of anetwork computing provider 107. Illustratively, in various embodiments,the obtaining of message placement configuration information or anyother functionality or interaction described herein may be performed bythe network computing provider 107 directly, or by any other componentor entity associated with the network computing provider 107.

Subsequently to providing the message placement configurationinformation, the client computing device 102 may provide a networkresource request to the NCC POP 142. Illustratively, for the purposes ofillustration, the network resource may be associated with a browsesession instance instantiated at the NCC POP 142 and/or may be includedin a new browse session request as illustratively described above withreference to FIGS. 2-11. In addition to any processing of the networkrequest with regard to remote browsing as discussed above with referenceto FIGS. 2-11, the NCC POP 142 may process the network request anddetermine message placement requests based on the message placementconfiguration information. In one embodiment, the NCC POP 142 mayadditionally determine the message placement requests based on one ormore characteristics of the network resource request. In a furtherembodiment, the NCC POP 142 may provisionally request the networkresource to determine any information that may be of use in determiningmessage placement requests (e.g., a number of message slots in thenetwork resource, a type of content, etc.).

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of the content delivery environment of FIG. 1illustrating the generation and processing of message placement purchaserequests and transmission of network resources between a networkcomputing provider and a content provider. In one embodiment, FIG. 16may begin subsequent to the interactions described with regard to FIG.15 above. Illustratively, the NCC POP 142 may have determined one ormore message placement requests based on any combination of messageplacement configuration information, a network resource request from theclient computing device 102, and one or more characteristics orinformation associated with the network resource itself. The NCC POP 142may provide a network resource request to the content provider 104 overthe network 108. Illustratively, subsequently to, prior to, orsimultaneously with the network resource request, the NCC POP 142 maytransmit the one or more determined message placement requests to thecontent provider 104. In one embodiment, the NCC POP 142 may providemessage placement requests that reference or otherwise identify therequested network resource, such as message placement requests thatspecify a bid on a message placement for the specific requested networkresource.

The content provider 104 may receive the network resource request withthe message placement requests, and may select messages for the networkresource based on the message placement requests and any otherinformation relating to the placement of messages in the networkresource, such as bids by advertisers or third-parties. Upon selectingmessages for the network resource, the content provider 104 may providethe requested network resource with information associated with theselected messages to the NCC POP 142 for processing. In one embodiment,the NCC POP 142 may process the network resource and any associatedmessages to provide processing results to the client computing device102 as discussed above with reference to FIGS. 2-11.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram illustrative of a message placement routine1700 implemented by a network computing provider 107. FIG. 17 may beginwith a client computing device 102 providing message placementconfiguration information to a network computing provider 107 over anetwork 108. Illustratively, the message placement configurationinformation may be associated with the placement of alternative messagesin content displayed in the software browser application. The messageplacement configuration information may be associated with a browser orclient computing device 102, defined or provided by a user at clientcomputing device 102, or dynamically determined based on any number offactors. In one embodiment, message placement configuration informationmay be provided to the network computing provider 107 by means of anetwork interface or an API provided by the network computing provider107. In one embodiment, the message placement configuration informationmay include or reference one or more alternative messages or referencesto alternative messages for display in accessed content, and may furtherinclude preference information associated with the placement of thealternative messages.

Alternative messages may include any textual content, script, image,video, animation, or other content capable of being displayed in a slotin network content displayed at a client computing device 102. Forexample, alternative messages may include pictures of a user's family,or other pictures selected by the user, may include poetry or other textselected by the user, or any other content. In one embodiment,alternative messages may include blank or quickly downloadable content(e.g., a 1-by-1 pixel spacer image) in order to minimize load time of anetwork resource. Alternative messages may be in any format allowed bythe browser, content provider 104, network computing provider 107 and/orother entity. In some embodiments, certain network content may includeslots of a particular size, shape, or configuration. In one embodiment,message placement configuration information may provide alternativemessages corresponding to one or more various standard or know shapes,sizes, or configuration. In other embodiment, the network computingprovider 107, content provider 104, or any other entity mayautomatically crop, resize, and/or modify one or more alternativemessages to fit a particular slot in a piece of network content.Illustratively, the message placement configuration information mayinclude one or more alternative messages in full, may includeidentifiers or references to alternative messages, or any combinationthereof. For example, message placement configuration information mayinclude a first alternative message consisting of data comprising animage, and a second alternative message consisting of a URL of an imageat a network data store.

Message placement configuration information may further includepreference information associated with the placement of alternativemessages in network content. This preference information may include,but is not limited to, various information specifying financialconstraints or preferences on the bidding or purchase of messageplacement, may specify a manner in which particular alternative messagesare to be placed, may specify preferences regarding content providers104 or third-party message placement providers, may include preferencesas to placement in particular slots or network content, may include aplacement goal, or may include any other preference associated with theplacement and bidding or purchase of alternative message placement innetwork content. Illustratively, information specifying financialconstraints or preferences may include a maximum amount to bid or payfor one or more slots, alternative messages, pieces or categories ofcontent, etc.

In one embodiment, financial constraints or preferences may furtherinclude, but are not limited to, a bidding strategy (e.g., instructionsto bid certain amounts in certain conditions, or to vary bids accordingto an algorithm or schedule), a maximum authorized amount to spendassociated with a fixed period of time (e.g., monthly), a rate to spend,financial purchase information (e.g., account information, etc.), or anyother information regarding bidding, purchase, price, or other financialfactor. In a further embodiment, a user may be a member of a group ofusers, managed by a network content and storage provider 107 or otherentity, that pool funds to buy a large group of alternative messageplacements. Illustratively, the network content and storage provider 107may provide information associated with a group donation or fee thatwill be used in determining funds for various message placement requestsdetermined below with regard to block 1708.

In some embodiments, the bidding or purchase of slots or messageplacement with one or more content providers or third-party messageplacement providers may be performed on the basis of credits, points, orother non-financial metric or value system. For example, in oneembodiment, a user may receive a number of credits with a networkcomputing provider 107 or content provider 104 for performing variousactions, such as purchasing goods through one or more content providersor online merchants. The user may be able to “spend” these credits bybidding on or purchasing placements or slots in network contentdisplayed at the client computing device 102 associated with the user.Illustratively, any non-monetary system of exchange may be treatedsimilarly to a financial system of exchange as described herein.

Message placement configuration information may further specify a mannerin which particular alternative messages are to be placed, includinglimiting or encouraging the placement of particular alternative messagesin various conditions or situations, including, but not limited to,certain times of the day, certain dates, when certain users are loggedin or are otherwise detected as accessing a browser, when a specificbrowser is used, etc. For example, in one embodiment, a user may specifythat alternative message placements should not be purchased when he isaccessing content from a client computing device 102 or browserassociated with his work, but that alternative message placements shouldbe purchased when he is accessing content from a client computing device102 or browser associated with his home. As another example, a user mayspecify that a first set of alternative messages are placed betweencertain hours of the day that he knows his children will be browsing,and a second set of alternative messages are placed when he is likely tobe browsing himself.

In another embodiment, message placement configuration information mayinclude preferences regarding content providers 104 or third-partymessage placement providers. For example, the message placementconfiguration information may specify that no alternative messageplacements be purchased with particular content providers or third-partymessage placement providers. Message placement configuration informationmay further include preferences as to placement in particular slots ornetwork content, including, but not limited to, limitations orpreferences as to a type, topic, or other characteristic of content toplace alternative messages in; preferred types, sizes, or othercharacteristics of slots to place alternative messages in, etc.

Message placement configuration information may still further includeany number of general or specific placement goals for furtherdetermination of message placement requests by the network computingprovider 107. Placement goals may include, but are not limited to, agoal of blocking the most pixels on displayed content, optimizingcontent load at the client computing device, replacing messages that aredetermined to be the most distracting with alternative messages,allowing a maximum number of advertisements per piece of content,substituting alternative messages for all messages (e.g.,advertisements) of a certain type, or tiering alternative messageplacement so that, for example, certain factors or placement preferencesare applied in the case of different types or tiers or content.

Illustratively, message placement configuration information may includeany one or combination of any factor or information, and/or factorweights or other decision information for balancing or determiningbetween various factors. Message placement configuration information maybe provided to the network computing provider 107 through an API,network interface, or through any other means. Illustratively, in oneembodiment, the client computing device 102 may process messageplacement configuration information itself and send message placementrequests directly to a content provider 104 or third-party messageplacement provider. In still other embodiments, the client computingdevice may send message placement configuration information directly tothe content provider 104 or third-party message placement provider.

In optional block 1706, the network computing provider 107 may obtain acontent request from the client computing device 102. For example, thenetwork computing provider may receive a new browse session request or acontent request (e.g., a request for a Web page or other networkresource) associated with an existing browse session as described withreference to FIGS. 2-11 above. Illustratively, the network computingprovider 107 may process the content request to obtain variousinformation about a requested network resource, such as identifying anassociated content provider 104, CDN service providers 106, orthird-party message placement provider. In other embodiments, thenetwork computing provider 107 may make a first request for therequested content from a content provider 104 or CDN service providers106. Illustratively, the network computing provider 107 may identifyvarious characteristics of the requested content (e.g., a number and/orconfiguration of message slots) for use in determining message placementrequests. In one embodiment, one or more identifying aspects or othermessage placement configuration information may be provided in a cookieassociated with a user or browser and associated with the contentrequest or requested content.

In block 1708, the network computing provider 107 may determine messageplacement requests. In one embodiment, the determination of messageplacement requests may be based on any factor or combination of factorsincluded in the message placement configuration information or otherinformation discussed above with regards to blocks 1704 and 1706.Various factors may be weighted according to user preferences or adetermination by the client computing device 102, network computingprovider 107, or any other entity. Illustratively, the network computingprovider 107 may optimize the bidding or purchasing of alternativemessages based on the limitations and preferences included in themessage placement configuration information. In one embodiment, thenetwork computing provider 107 may optimize and determine between thevarious factors based on simple comparison, linear calculations, orbased on any other optimization or decision algorithm, as known in theart.

Message placement requests may contain information identifying orassociated with one or more alternative messages, and a bid, price,value, or other information to be used by the content provider 104 orthird-party message placement provider in selecting an alternativemessage. The actual format and means for the transmission of messageplacement requests may vary based on the particular content provider 104or third-party message placement provider that they are intended for. Invarious embodiments, the particular content provider 104 or third-partymessage placement provider associated with a particular network resourceor other piece of network content may be determined based on a networkcontent request, a new browse session request, processing of the networkcontent itself (e.g., based on an initial download or an examination ofthe network content in a cache associated with the network computingprovider 107), a network address, a URL, a sub-domain, and/or onaggregated information based on content requested by other users. Forexample, if all content provided to users at a particular base URL hasbeen associated with a particular third-party message placementprovider, the network computing provider 107 may treat a requestassociated with the base URL as similarly associated with the samethird-party message placement provider. Illustratively, messageplacement requests may be provided to any number of content providers104 and/or third-party message placement providers. In one embodiment,message placement requests may only be provided to a content provider104 or third-party message placement provider associated with aparticular piece of network content. In other embodiments, messageplacement requests may be provided to groups, tiers, or any number orset of content providers 104 or third-party message placement providers.

In one embodiment, message placement requests may include subscriptioninformation and/or be directed to content providers 104 or third-partymessage placement providers that are included in a message placementsubscription scheme. For example, in one embodiment, a subscriptionmodel may be used that allows a client computing device 102 or user toplace a certain number or value of alternative messages with a contentprovider 104 for a fixed fee. In an alternative embodiment, asubscription model may allow a client computing device or user to placealternative messages for some or all slots in some or all contentdisplayed at a client computing device. For example, a user may have asubscription with a content provider 104 or a group of content providers104 to only place alternative messages on requested content. As anotherexample, a user may have a subscription with a network content andstorage provider 107 that allows the user to place alternative messageson all or a subset of representations of content received through remotecontent browsing, such as described, for the purposes of illustration inFIGS. 2-11.

In a further embodiment, a content provider 104, network computingprovider 107, or other third-party message manager component or messageplacement provider may allow a user to purchase alternative messageplacements specific to a particular user, browser, or client computingdevice 102. Accordingly, in the context of this embodiment, alternativemessages may only be placed in content requested and/or displayed by aparticular user, browser, and/or client computing device 102. Forexample, a content provider 104 may accept message placement requestsspecific to a particular user, and may only select the associatedalternative messages for slots in provided content when content requestsare identified as being from the particular user. Illustratively,membership in a subscription service may be indicated by any number oftypes of information including, but not limited to, a cookie associatedwith a user or browser, a network address or sub-domain, informationincluded in a content request or new browse session request (e.g., inthe header or body of a request), in information sent by a networkcomputing provider 107 in association with a content request on thebehalf of the user, browser, or client computing device, or in any otherway.

Returning to FIG. 17, at block 1710 the network computing provider 107may provide the message placement requests to the content provider 104or third-party message placement provider. The content provider 104 orthird-party message placement provider may illustratively selectmessages to include in requested content by comparing bids or values, orany other method of selecting messages as known in the art. In oneembodiment, the content provider 104 or third-party message placementprovider may select messages to include in requested content in advanceof a content request. In another embodiment, a content provider 104 orthird-party message placement provider may select a message to includein requested content responsive to the content request. Illustratively,the content provider 104 or third-party message placement provider mayselect one or more alternative messages to include in content requestedby the user, browser, or client computing device 102. The contentprovider 104 or third-party message placement provider may, depending onbidding and the message placement requests, also select some messagesnot associated with alternative messages selected by the user.Illustratively, content provided by the content provider 104 in responseto a subsequent content request may include the selected one or morealternative messages, as well as any other selected messages.

In one embodiment, the network computing provider 107 may negotiate witha content provider 104 or third-party message placement provider whenproviding message placement purchase requests. For example, the networkcomputing provider 107 may request a highest bid for various slots invarious network content prior to sending a set of bids in one or moremessage placement purchase requests. In other embodiments, a networkcomputing provider 107 may provide a second bid if a first bid isunsuccessful, or may negotiate with the content provider 104 orthird-party message placement provider for a flat placement fee orsubscription price in order to provide a maximum benefit for a givencost.

In various embodiments, the network computing provider 107 may providerepresentations of requested content to the client computing device bymeans of a remote browsing session, as described with regard to FIGS.2-11, or in any other way. Illustratively, in some embodiments, thenetwork computing provider 107 may process content obtained from acontent provider 104 or CDN service provider 106 and replaceadvertisements or other messages included in slots in the content withalternative messages selected by the user at the client computing device102. In one embodiment, the network computing provider 107 may providethe content provider 104 or third-party message placement provider witha payment or other benefit to compensate for the replaced message notbeing viewed by the user at the client computing device 102.Illustratively, a payment from the network computing provider 107 to thecontent provider 104 or third-party message placement provider maymatch, or be different than a maximum bid or payment associated with thepurchase of a placement of the alternative message at the contentprovider 104 or third-party message placement provider. Illustratively,the network computing provider 107 replacing messages with alternativemessages and compensating the content provider 104 or third-partymessage placement provider may allow a content provider 104 orthird-party message placement provider to profit from the display ofalternative messages on the behalf of a user, without requiring newfunctionality or interactions at the content provider 104 or third-partymessage placement provider itself.

At block 1712, the network computing provider 107 may receive a messageplacement purchase confirmation from one or more content providers 104or third-party message placement providers. At block 1714, the networkcomputing provider 107 may provide a message placement purchase statusto the client computing device 102. Illustratively, this messageplacement purchase status may include a summary of accepted bids onvarious slots of various content, or any other summary information. Atblock 1716, the routine 1700 ends. Illustratively, network contentsubsequently requested by the client computing device 102 may includeone or more alternative messages in addition to, or as an alternativeto, messages associated with one or more third-parties.

While illustrative embodiments have been disclosed and discussed, oneskilled in the relevant art will appreciate that additional oralternative embodiments may be implemented within the spirit and scopeof the present invention. For example, the techniques described hereinmay be utilized, without departing from the scope of the presentinvention, to allow remote processing management in any number of othersoftware applications and processes, including, but not limited to,image or video editing software, database software, office productivitysoftware, 3d design software, audio and sound processing applications,etc. Additionally, although many embodiments have been indicated asillustrative, one skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that theillustrative embodiments do not need to be combined or implementedtogether. As such, some illustrative embodiments do not need to beutilized or implemented in accordance with scope of variations to thepresent disclosure.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow diagramsdescribed herein and/or depicted in the attached FIGURES should beunderstood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions ofcode which include one or more executable instructions for implementingspecific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternativeimplementations are included within the scope of the embodimentsdescribed herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executedout of order from that shown or discussed, including substantiallyconcurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionalityinvolved, as would be understood by those skilled in the art. It willfurther be appreciated that the data and/or components described abovemay be stored on a computer-readable medium and loaded into memory ofthe computing device using a drive mechanism associated with a computerreadable medium storing the computer executable components such as aCD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or network interface. Further, the component and/ordata can be included in a single device or distributed in any manner.Accordingly, general purpose computing devices may be configured toimplement the processes, algorithms, and methodology of the presentdisclosure with the processing and/or execution of the various dataand/or components described above.

It should be emphasized that many variations and modifications may bemade to the above-described embodiments, the elements of which are to beunderstood as being among other acceptable examples. All suchmodifications and variations are intended to be included herein withinthe scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for advertisementplacement management comprising: as performed by advertising managementcomponent comprising one or more computing devices configured to executespecific instructions, obtaining, at the network advertising managementcomponent, advertisement alternative placement configuration informationfrom a client computing device, wherein the advertisement alternativeplacement configuration information includes one or more alternativeimages selected by a user at the client computing device, and whereinthe advertisement alternative placement configuration informationincludes preferences associated with the placement of the alternativeimages in network content requested by the user at the client computingdevice; determining, by the network advertising management component,one or more advertisement alternative placement requests based on theadvertisement alternative placement configuration information, whereeach of the one or more advertisement alternative placement requests isassociated with at least one of the one or more alternative images andat least one financial value associated with a maximum that the user iswilling to pay to substitute the at least one of the one or morealternative images for one or more advertisements in content at theclient computing device; and providing, by the network advertisingmanagement component, the one or more advertisement alternativeplacement requests to an advertisement placement provider, wherein theadvertisement alternative placement requests are processed by theadvertisement placement provider to cause content displayed at theclient computing device to include one or more of the one or morealternative images based on the at least one financial value associatedwith each of the one or more advertisement alternative placementrequests, wherein the displayed content includes one or moreadvertisement placement slots for the display of advertisements, andwherein the included one or more of the one or more alternative imagesare displayed in the one or more advertisement placement slots of thedisplayed content at the client computing device.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the displayed content is a Web page.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the advertisement placement provider provides the displayedcontent to the client computing device.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the advertisement placement slots of the displayed contentcorrespond to network identifiers associated with the advertisementplacement provider.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the advertisementplacement provider is configured to provide the client computing devicewith the included one or more of the one or more alternative imagesbased on the network identifiers associated with the advertisementplacement provider.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisementalternative placement requests are processed by the advertisementplacement provider to cause content displayed at the client computingdevice to include one or more of the one or more alternative imagesbased on whether the at least one financial value associated with eachof the one or more advertisement alternative placement requests exceedsa financial value associated with an advertisement placement.
 7. Asystem for message placement management comprising: one or more computerprocessors; and at least one computer memory accessible by at least oneof the one or more computer processors, the at least one computer memorystoring an executable software module, wherein the at least one of theone or more computer processors is configured to execute the softwaremodule to provide one or more message placement requests associated witha client computing device to a message placement provider, wherein eachof the one or more message placement requests are associated with one ormore alternative messages and at least one financial value, the one ormore alternative messages and the at least one financial value selectedby a user of the client computing device, and wherein the messageplacement requests are processed by the message placement provider tocause a representation of content displayed at the client computingdevice to include at least one of the one or more alternative messages,selected by the user of the client computing device, based on the atleast one financial value selected by the user of the client computingdevice.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the message placement providercorresponds to at least one of a content provider and an advertisementplacement provider.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or morealternative messages include an image, a video clip, a text segment, oran animation.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the representation ofcontent displayed at the client computing device includes one or moremessage placement slots.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein at leastone of the alternative messages is displayed in at least one of the oneor more message placement slots at the client computing device.
 12. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein at least one of the alternative messages isdisplayed in all the one or more message placement slots at the clientcomputing device.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or moremessage placement slots comprise advertisement placement slots for theplacement of advertising.
 14. The system of claim 7, wherein the messagemanagement component is further operable to generate the messageplacement requests based on message placement configuration informationobtained from the client computing device.
 15. The system of claim 7,wherein the message management component is further operable to providethe representation of content displayed at the client computing deviceto the client computing device in response to a content request.
 16. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the message management component is furtheroperable to generate the message placement requests based at least inpart on the content request.
 17. The system of claim 7, wherein thefinancial value is associated with a value of placing a message innetwork content.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the representationof content displayed at the client computing device is caused to includeat least one of the one or more alternative messages if the at least onemessage placement value corresponds to a highest value bid for theplacement of a message.
 19. A computer-implemented method for messageplacement management comprising: as performed by a message componentcomprising one or more computing devices configured to execute specificinstructions, determining one or more message placement requests basedon message placement configuration information associated with a clientcomputing device, wherein each of the one or more message placementrequests is associated with at least alternate message information andat least one financial value selected by a user of the client computingdevice; and providing the one or more message placement requests to amessage placement provider, wherein the message placement requests areprocessed by the message placement provider to cause a representation ofcontent displayed at the client computing device to include one or morealternative messages associated with the alternate message informationbased on the financial value selected by the user of the clientcomputing device.
 20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19,wherein the one or more alternative messages include at least one of animage, a video clip, a text segment, and an animation.
 21. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the representation ofcontent displayed at the client computing device includes one or moremessage placement slots.
 22. The computer-implemented method of claim21, wherein at least one of the alternative messages is displayed in atleast one of the one or more message placement slots at the clientcomputing device.
 23. The computer-implemented method of claim 21,wherein at least one of the alternative messages is displayed in all theone or more message placement slots at the client computing device. 24.The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the one or moremessage placement slots comprise advertisement placement slots for theplacement of advertising.
 25. The computer-implemented method of claim19, wherein the message placement configuration information is obtainedfrom the client computing device.
 26. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 19 further comprising providing the representation of contentdisplayed at the client computing device to the client computing devicein response to a content request.
 27. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 26 further comprising determining the message placement requestsbased at least in part on the content request.
 28. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the financial value isassociated with a value of placing a message in network content.
 29. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 28, wherein the representation ofcontent displayed at the client computing device is caused to include atleast one of the one or more alternative messages if the at least onemessage placement value corresponds to a highest value bid for theplacement of a message.